The Regional Climate Center Program—Past, Present, and Future: Reflections from 40 Years of Regional Climate Services Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Since its inception in 1983, NOAA’s Regional Climate Center (RCC) Program has been providing timely, customized climate services for decision making across all climate-sensitive sectors. Through this 40-yr period, the RCC Program has not only seen but also has played an active role in, the evolution of climate services from the days of climate data libraries—where books of data were consulted to fulfill simple data requests—to coproduced tools that can calculate sectoral-specific, on-the-fly climate analyses in a matter of seconds. With new technologies emerging, the RCC Program is poised to build on its reputation as a trusted climate service provider by incorporating advanced methods for climate service delivery to continue to meet the needs of the nation. This publication will provide a look back at the evolution of regional climate services over the past 40 years, along with a vision for the future.