Drought Monitoring

The data and products from ACIS are routinely used in drought early warning and drought management decisions. The U.S. Drought Monitor authors rely on this Regional Climate Center (RCC) data structure for their weekly assessment of current and emerging drought conditions.

Communicating Impacts

The RCCs are partnering with state and federal agency personnel across the country to produce a regional view of seasonal climate conditions. These summaries utilize data and maps from ACIS to provide various sectors a local perspective of impacts. Reports may be accessed here.

Assessing the State of the Climate

The versatility of ACIS is exploited in National Climate Assessment figures and data summaries. The suite of downscaled climate model projections from the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) was added to ACIS facilitating the computation of state and regional averages and the examination of impact-producing climate measures such as heat waves and heavy rainfall events.

Data Management and Stewardship

Climate data products used operationally by local National Weather Service (NWS) Forecast Offices and county-level Natural Resources Conservation Service personnel are delivered and maintained by ACIS. This eliminates the cost and burden of maintaining separate databases at several hundred locations nationwide and assures that identical data and analysis techniques are available from each office. A public interface to ACIS products is available on each NWS office’s website.

Agricultural Decision Making

The agriculture industry receives support from the Regional Climate Centers data system through specialized products and services. Such support directly influences key management decisions, such as timing of planting and scheduling irrigation, to help reduce risk and increase yields. Information is provided by the RCCs to various components of the industry, from University Extension to the private sector.

Research to Operations

Climate services are performed by a spectrum of academic, governmental, and private organizations. ACIS is emerging as an efficient platform to transition research products to operational tools. This capability compliments the research mission of other NOAA and Department of Interior climate research centers and the outreach mission of the USDA climate activities.