NOAA Climate Cores are proposed forums across the country to address regionally specific climate issues in response to a recognized need (NRC; Redmond, 2001) to promote cohesive and collaborative interactions among the climate community to enhance knowledge, maximize opportunities and limit redundancy. These forums will serve NOAA’s needs for information gathering and dissemination, and to effectively coordinate NOAA and NOAA-supported research and climate service activities in a manner that is relevant to the needs of the U.S. public. This paper provides an end-to-end description of the climate cores, including challenges and goals for the forums, and identifies possible core regions appropriate to address specific climate issues.