Wyoming State Climate Office
The Wyoming State Climate Office (SCO) is a branch of the Wyoming Water Resources Data System (WRDS). Together, WRDS and the SCO are the single largest providers of water and climate-related data in the state. Housed within the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering at the University of Wyoming, WRDS and the SCO are funded by the Wyoming Water Development Office.
The WRDS-SCO office provides a variety of services, ranging from the development of enhanced drought-monitoring products to the online dissemination of water and climate data. WRDS and the SCO also support a variety of stakeholder groups by assisting in the development of the State Water Plan and helping to coordinate long-term climate and hydrologic monitoring efforts throughout the region. WRDS and the SCO are active in several fields of research including the study of impacts of climate variability/change on water resources, design of climate monitoring systems/networks for high-mountain areas, long-term history of Wyoming and western U.S. climate, tree-ring based reconstruction of river flow, glacial dynamics in the Central and Northern Rockies, and the ecosystem impacts of drought.
State Climate Offices are an integral component of the National Climate Service Partnership, which also includes NOAA's National Climatic Data Center and six Regional Climate Centers (RCCs). State climate offices recognized by the American Association of State Climatologists (AASC) work closely with one another, and with the regional and national counterparts, to provide climate data and services at the local level. Specifically, AASC recognized state climate offices (or ARSCOs) provide one or more of the following services:
1) Coordinate and collect weather observations for the purpose of climate monitoring; 2) Summarize and disseminate weather and climate information to the user community; 3) Demonstrate to the user community the value of climate information in the decision making process; 4) Perform climate impact assessments and weather event evaluations; 5) Conduct climate research, diagnosis, and projections.
The Wyoming State Climate Office is recognized by the AASC.
Phone: (307) 766-6651
Related Organizations:
- National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
- University of Wyoming
- American Association of State Climatologists (AASC)
- Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, Snow (CoCoRaHS)
