As the world's largest active archive of weather data, the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) is truly a force of nature. The organization operates the World Data Center for Meteorology in Asheville, NC as well as the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology in Boulder, CO. The material offered includes data sets that track historical climate data throughout the United States and material on...

The Ambient Air Monitoring System: Near Real Time Data Web site is presented by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The collected data includes pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, and methane among others, as well as all common meteorological data. Records are collected and reported hourly, and can be viewed by parameter or by station, which are...

The National Climate Data Center has launched the Climatic Data Online (CDO) system, providing "full period of record digital data for 5 types of US climatic data: daily surface data, monthly surface data, hourly precipitation data, 15-minute precipitation data, and global monthly surface data." Records are available from as early as the late 1800s, and each dataset is updated as more data become...

The focus of NOAA's Weather-Ready Nation website is to build community "resilience in the face of increasing vulnerability to extreme weather and water events." On the site, visitors can make their way through sections that include Events, Resources, Be a Force of Nature, and Are you Weather-Ready? This last area is a great public resource for those looking to get ready for extreme weather,...

This National Weather Service (NWS) website furnishes weekly publications of the latest meteorological news and research. The site features an archive of all of the newsletters written since March 14, 2001. Throughout the articles, users can find enjoyable stories and wonderful photographs as well as links to relevant websites and press releases. Visitors can learn how to submit articles and...

During the next three months, more than 350 scientists from Europe, Russia, Japan, and the United States will combine forces to measure ozone levels and changes in the upper Arctic atmosphere as part of SOLVE, the SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment. Although much of the SOLVE homepage targets the public, several sections will be of interest to researchers and educators. The section...

For four days last week, the daily temperatures outside the Internet Scout Project office here in Wisconsin soared above 60 F (and on one day, above 75 F), and the lakes that surround Madison melted in one fell swoop, bringing winter to a lurching halt and restless thoughts of summer to the forefront. While such local temperature anomalies are not surprising (nor did other cities experience the...

One of six regional climate centers in the United States, the Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC) was created in 1986. The WRCC is administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and is overseen by the National Climatic Data Center. Covering the area from Colorado to the boundary of the continental US (along with the states of Hawaii and Alaska), this website is a true...

World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a United Nations Specialized Agency, is the "authoritative voice on the state and behavior of the Earth's atmosphere, its interaction with the oceans, the climate it produces and the resulting distribution of water resources." Visitors can learn about the organization's mission, structure, many programs, and awards. The large website covers global climate...