High Plains center helps maintain climate information flow after hurricane

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s High Plains Regional Climate Center processes complex climate data that provide a host of practical uses. Farmers use the information in deciding planting and irrigation. Industry relies on it for energy planning. Scientists depend on it for long-term climate analysis. On top of those responsibilities, a recent natural disaster on the East Coast has handed the center crucial additional duties.

In September, Hurricane Helene smashed into western North Carolina, devastating mountain communities and shutting down the National Centers for Environmental Information, the country’s largest repository of weather and climate information, in Asheville. That facility was the country’s central source of a range of aggregated and processed weather and climate data. 

To keep that crucial information flowing to users across the country, the High Plains center’s climatologists and data specialists took action, coordinating with partners including five other regional climate centers across the country.

“It’s important to be able to adapt and make sure that this critical climate information is available for clients throughout the country,” said William Sorensen, senior applications/systems programmer for the High Plains center, which has been housed in the School of Natural Resources since 1987. “So many people rely on getting the data to make good decisions, to make money, to grow a crop, or whatever their need.”

Because the High Plains center constantly receives weather and climate information from multiple sources, it has the capacity to deal with data on a national level, so there was no break in the data chain, Sorensen said. “It’s just that given the situation, we become a source for end users,” after the information from satellites and surface measurements is processed to meet users’ specific needs.

The High Plains center’s main response required stepped-up coordination and collaboration with partner entities rather than making major changes in procedure or adjustments in equipment. The High Plains center’s IT team quickly adapted by pulling a particular set of raw data directly from Colorado State University, for example.

The Asheville center has restored much of its capability but is still working toward full restoration. 

In addition to the High Plains center, the university also is home to the National Drought Mitigation Center and the Nebraska State Climate Office. 

For its regular duties, the High Plains center processes weather and climate data for a variety of services. Demand is heavy for the center’s ACISClimateMaps service, which enables users to quickly generate maps of temperature and precipitation variables over specific periods for states or regions of the United States.

AgClimate View, another service, provides graphs showing monthly temperature and precipitation, and highlights county-level corn and soybean yield trends.

Users can draw on the CliGrow service to view data for growing degree days, a seasonal measure of heat accumulation, for several crops at locations across the country. The information aids in estimating times for plant maturity. 

The list of clients for real-time weather and long-term climate information is a diverse one, said Gannon Rush, a service climatologist at the High Plains center. Individual ag producers have localized concerns, while major corporations in the agribusiness, transportation and energy sectors need climate information in high volume.

Because climate risk involves financial risk, investors generate a large and growing demand for climate data. Worldwide economic losses from extreme weather events in 2022 totaled $313 billion. 

“You'll have a lot of investors looking at climate data, especially if they’re looking into the agricultural market or the energy sector,” Rush said. “So, all this climate data going back to the 1800s is very valuable to them so they can characterize a situation and say, OK, this year was extremely anomalous.”

Moody’s is a major client for climate data, for example, since it now offers its clients climate risk analytics. Realtor.com includes climate risk factor scores, and Zillow is about to do the same.

Climate data services also can have value in settling court cases.

“One of the big things Asheville does is provide data for court cases,” Rush said. “Say you have a neighbor who was spraying a field and the pesticide got on your field, and you have to go to court. You need something called certified data to bring it to a court case.”

With the Asheville center temporarily sidelined this fall, he said, the High Plains center and other regional climate centers coordinate to identify the sources for the relevant climate data for court certification and which center should handle it. 

For the long term, Sorensen said, the current disruption is spurring increased coordination among the High Plains center and other regional climate centers as they accelerate the integration of new data sources into their systems.