US Climate Centers

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You may have heard the term “big data” thrown around. You may even be currently majoring in something focused on data analytics or figuring out strategies to solve the “big data” problem. But what do we mean by “big data?” For simplicity, big data refers to extremely large and complex datasets.

Well, in many ways, climate data is just that! The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) currently houses (as of 2023) more than 60 petabytes (1 petabyte = 1,000,000 gigabytes) of climate information. For context, an entry-level iPhone holds approximately 128 gigabytes of data – I would need more than half a million iPhones dedicated to storing climate data to hold it all! Another analogy is 60PB is equal to 5,268.704 years scrolling through tiktok assuming each video is around 13 MB and you watch around 100 tiktoks per hour. Remember, climate is the synthesis of weather, so to develop a solid climate record we effectively need to maintain logs of everything that has happened daily in perpetuity!

So, how do we do that here in the United States? Well, currently, if you want to use climate data in your day-to-day work, the best place to head is the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), which is housed in Ashville, NC. NCEI (formally the National Climate Data Center) arose from a federal mandate way back in 1951. Before then, weather and climate archives were scattered at various offices around the United States. They were occasionally employed for regional analysis but without any national (or international) organization. It became clear to the federal government that coordination and standardization of such data was important to a variety of sectors around the country and was rapidly growing more important as interstate commerce was the norm rather than the exception.

The NCEI has evolved throughout the years. Data that were once handwritten on slips of paper were moved to punch cards, then cassette tapes and floppy disks, then optical media and hard drives. However, NCEI's primary goal has remained to safeguard these data and make it accessible to various stakeholders, including the public, businesses, government agencies, and researchers.

The user base for NCEI data spans a wide spectrum of sectors, including agriculture, air quality, construction, education, energy, engineering, forestry, health, insurance, landscape design, livestock management, manufacturing, national security, recreation/tourism, retailing, transportation, and water resources management. Climate underlies nearly every facet of our lives.

While the NCEI serves as a central brain for the U.S.’s climate data, other climate centers across the U.S. collaborate with it to manage more regional impacts of climate. There are six major climate centers around the country. All are affiliated with major research universities and help catalog and analyze climate data specific to their respective locations. These centers often foster collaborations between service climatologists and related academic disciplines, facilitating important ongoing research. These centers also contribute to important published releases, like the National Drought Monitor which you have almost certainly seen during a particularly dry spell. Since these regional centers focus on smaller service areas compared to NCEI they can more efficiently engage in public outreach and interact with and educate local communities.

A map denoting the six regional climate centers and which states they oversee. The stars denote the headquarters of each climate center, generally at universities with meteorology or climate science departments.

Credit: Regional Climate Centers, National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), (Public Domain)

Another relevant role linked to regional climate centers is that of the state climatologist. Some state climatologists are associated with regional climate centers, while others hold dual appointments as university faculty or government officials. State climatologists serve as experts to state governments and residents. As of 2013, there were 47 official state climatologists nationwide, including one in Puerto Rico – their primary roles are to collect and interpret climate data for their home state and disseminate climate data and information through various means.

Meet your state climatologist!

Kyle Imhoff joined the Pennsylvania State Climate Office in August 2011 and became Pennsylvania State Climatologist in July 2016. Kyle is a research assistant and instructor at Penn State University. He teaches courses in weather forecasting and applied climatology, and his research interests include applied climatology, synoptic meteorology, numerical weather prediction, and weather risk. Kyle also serves as the local manager for the Penn State team in the WxChallenge national collegiate forecasting competition. Kyle is currently a member of the American Association of State Climatologists.

Prior to joining the Climate Office team, Kyle focused on weather forecasting and assisted in producing winter weather forecasts for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in District 2. Kyle also worked as a research assistant at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the summer of 2010 where he studied marine boundary layer cloud evolution.

Kyle was born and raised in Pennsylvania. Currently, he resides in Bellefonte, but his hometown is in Rockwood, Pennsylvania. While at Penn State, Kyle majored and earned his B.S. and M.S. degree in Meteorology.