Climate Services: What do State Climate Offices, Regional Climate Centers, and RISAs do?

Have you ever come across different organizations that provide climate services, yet not understand how they all fit together? You're not alone!

There are three particularly critical partners at the state and regional level that help to provide climate services: State Climate Offices, Regional Climate Centers, and Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessment (RISA) program. These three groups play differing roles in climate services ranging from in-state interactions with users (State Climate Offices), to regional distribution of climate data (Regional Climate Centers), to the learning end of the spectrum focusing on the types of information and research user groups need to better make decisions (Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments). A short brochure has recently been developed to further describes each of these groups, you may access it here.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has also recently launched www.climate.gov which serves as an excellent new site that brings these climate services and many others together in a single location. 

If you have any questions about the SCIPP RISA or would like to work with us, please contact us at scipp@mesonet.org.