Climate decision support tools at the Northeast Regional Climate Center

Over the last several years the Northeast Regional Climate Center has worked with stakeholders in a variety of sectors to develop a suite of web-based decision support tools. The planning, design, testing and operational dissemination of these tools are discussed. Two tools are used as examples. One, a climatological model of late blight occurrence, highlights the integration of official NOAA and user-supported observations. It also demonstrates the need to bridge the temporal divide between climate and weather. The second example discusses tools which require considerable a priori climatological research to be able to meet user needs. Extension of the fundamental components required for these specific tools to different climate decisions is also illustrated.