Climate has been a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) mission since its 19th century beginning, when the Weather Bureau had the responsibility for collecting data that now makes up the historical climate record. NWS more formally organized its climate service delivery when it reorganized the Office of Meteorology into the Office of Climate Water and Weather Services in 2000, with the Climate Service Division (CSD) providing leadership in coordinating climate activities at NWS national, regional, and local offices.

With increasing public awareness of our ever-changing climate, users from all levels of environmental literacy and economic sectors continuously request information on linkages between extreme meteorological and hydrological events such as drought, tornado activity, floods, hurricane landfall, severe storminess, among other events. NWS local-office staff pioneered the pilots addressing these needs at the local level. However, the existing staff capacity and organization are not sufficiently meeting user demand for integrated environmental decision support services.

This paper proposes a new strategy to better meet user demand for these services, including more effective communication of climate, water, and weather information. Our concept includes a new framework for delivery of comprehensive and integrated services that (1) connect environmental disciplines, (2) link national, regional, and local operational offices, (3) span observation, monitoring and outlook capabilities, and (4) incorporate user needs for extreme weather and climate information into research objectives feeding operational services. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NOAA NWS.