NWS Climate Services Division and NWS Hydrologists in the Field

HIC MeetingJuly 30, 2008

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NWS Climate Services Division and NWS Hydrologists in the Field

Summer Hydrologist-in-Charge Meeting

July 30, 2008

Ahsha Tribble, Ph.D.Chief, Climate Services Division (CSD)

NOAA National Weather Service


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NOAA Climate Goal

Understand and describe climate variability and change to enhance society's ability to plan and respond

3 Themes:

Climate Observations and Monitoring (Tom Karl - NESDIS)

Climate Research and Modeling (V. Ramaswamy – OAR)

Climate Services Development (Chet Koblinsky [Acting] – OAR)


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About CSD and Its Support to the NWS Hydrologic Sciences Community


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Working CSD Vision and Mission

Climate Services Vision: A National Weather Service leading the delivery of relevant and timely climate products and information to our field offices, our partners, our customers, and the Nation to enable informed societal and economic

decision making at all levels.

Climate Services Mission: To ensure NWS develops and delivers an end-to-end

suite of climate variability and change products and information through strategic planning, user

engagement, product and policy development, integration of research and assessments,

partnerships, outreach, and training.


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What Does the Climate Services Division Do?

Strategic vision for NWS Climate Services

NWS policy and requirements for climate products and services

Training courses and modules for NWS field staff

Local climate products and services

Stewardship of the national climate record

User requirements and customer interaction

Outreach

Portal for NOAA’s official position on climate change and variability (new)


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Field Interaction

6 Climate Services Program Managers (CSPMs)

Your contact point and coordination mechanism to other field offices and OCWWS

Lead the climate program in the Region

247 Climate Services Focal Points (CSFPs)

Lead the climate program in the local offices

Amounts to 0.5 FTE per office

https://ocwws.weather.gov/intranet/climate/directory.php


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This document:

Describes climate services delivery by NWS Regional and Forecast Offices

Defines actions necessary to successfully implement climate services at the regional and local levels in NWS

Climate Services Operations Document

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/csd/Documents/Ops2.pdf


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CSD’s Role to Support RFCs

Liaison between the RFCs and CPC

Liaison between the RFCs and the Climate Program Office (i.e., RISAs)

Enhanced CSD knowledge of OHD activities to better serve RFCs

Develop relationship with your new Service Coordination Hydrologists (SCH) for outreach activities

Promote the services of the RFCs (e.g., precipitation estimate analysis…)


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CSD – HSD: New Initiatives

HydroMet Testbed and Climate Testbed coordination

Integrated Water Resources Science and Services (IWRSS) as venue for CSD/HSD collaboration

CSD and HSD coordinated NIDIS requirements

Outreach exchange (https://ocwws.weather.gov

/intranet/climate/ )


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Climate Services Survey

CSD tasked to conduct a Customer Satisfaction Survey on NWS climate products and services

Using HSD Survey as a model

Your input is encouraged!


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Spatial Climatology Product

Current use of PRISM

NCDC development of alternative software to PRISM

Go To Meeting in near future to describe and discuss its science, format, applications, and status


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2-way Visitor’s Program

Re-establish the Visitor’s Program from field/partners to CSD

Create a Visitor’s Program from CSD to the field

(budget dependent)


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Potential Roles of RFCs in NWS Climate Services

(Discussion Topics)


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RFC’s Role: Training

Development:Provide training requirements

Relevance review / feedback process

Use of RFC staff as instructors

Training Courses:Climate Variability and Operational Climate Services courses

Distance Learning Materials:

Climate Services Infrastructure

Climate Variability

CPC and Local Climate Product Science, Tools, Format, Interpretation

Climate Observations


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RFC’s Role: Climate Data and Observations

RFCs are the primary internal NWS climate data users.

RFCs should contribute to setting requirements for:

Data quality, coverage, and continuity

Data and monitoring products: content, format, etc.

Ideas to routinely collect these requirements?


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RFC’s Role: Local Hydro-climate Products

3 Month Outlook of Local El Nino / La Nina Impacts on Temperature and Precipitation (3MOLEI)

Participation in internal review

Hydro- users feedback

Internet-based Local Product Development Tools in ~FY10 (composite, trend analysis, time series, etc.)

Learning local climate specificities and sensitivities

Local offices-driven operational product development


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RFC’s Role: Promoting Interaction with NWS WFOs

Providing Hydrologic Products and Services within climate variability content

Climate Variability and Change can serve as additional common ground for:

Joint user outreach activities

Requirements for new product and services


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Questions/Comments

We need your ideas and input!