Meeting demand for the undervalued climate service: having ability to engage in medium-term projects

Demand for regional climate services is growing. Meeting this demand requires engaging in projects that span a range of time commitments, spanning quick activities—such as extracting the temperature record of a particular Cooperative Observer Program weather station—to longer projects that become integrated into operations, such as the NOAA Climate Predictions Center's monthly long-lead forecasts. Obvious incentives exist at the margins of this spectrum. On one end, activities can be completed quickly. At the other end, longer projects create more opportunities for funding and credit toward tenure for university scientists. The bulk of climate services, however, falls in the middle of this spectrum and require a month to a few years of work. These projects can be difficult to undertake because they require resources but often do not generate substantial financial returns or present opportunities for prestigious publications. Yet, they are vital to satisfying stakeholder demand, creating new and strengthening existing partnerships, aiding decisions, extending climate literacy, and fostering future projects—main tenets of a climate service program.

This presentation documents a few medium-term climate services, drawing heavily from the experiences of the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS), a Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) program. It also highlights results from these collaborations, which suggest that while medium-term projects require staff and resources without initial payback, they satisfy a large body of climate service requests, are starting points for new stakeholder relationships, and often progress into larger projects with more funding opportunities. The medium-term climate service is like the middle two sprinters in the 4 by 400 meter relay race: they do a large portion of the work, hand off the baton to the final phase, and are essential contributors to the overall goal.

Engaging in medium-range collaborations should be considered a vital strategy in providing climate services.