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Three Years of Impact:
Climate Information Project Climate-Weather Impact Updates
...the impact record tells a story about the interaction between humans and Nature.
Human activity is guided, if not forged by, the various climates in which we live. Whether it is our clothing, shelter, diet, or recreation, the variations in the annual seasons play a significant role in determining our resources and comfort level. Yet despite the societal importance of climate and weather, it is often difficult to notice this relationship unless we are personally affected by a storm, heat wave, etc. Extreme events, however, are indeed a daily occurrence.
In July of 1998, the Climate Information Project (CIP) began summarizing the reported global impacts of climate and hydro-meteorological hazards as a briefing service for the Office of Global Programs and other parts of NOAA. As the methodology for the reports slowly evolved, so did the number of "subscribers," and currently employees at several USG agencies and research centers, various international collaborators, teachers, and others unknown receive the reports via e-mail or the Internet. In total about 400 people receive the updates via e-mail and several others simply view them from the CIP website.
For some the summaries are merely interesting, while others actively use them as a supplementary source for monitoring events. Researchers creating natural disaster databases also use them for guidance and as a "shorthand" record for developing their own impact estimates. And finally educators have used these reports in the classroom to illustrate the effect and complexity of disasters. Even the Museum of Natural History in New York City has used the reports as a resource for one of its exhibits.
Since their inception, the Climate-Weather Impact Updates have always been an operational product, but taken together the reports are also emerging as a qualitative database. When read not as entries, but rather considered as a "novel," the reports impart a powerful message about the seasonality of losses and gains associated with hydro-meteorological hazards. Whether it is a description of ecological impact, political confrontation induced by environmental stresses, or the losses felt in a rural area, the impact record tells a story about the interaction between humans and Nature.
Screen Capture of Climate Information Project Home Page |
Screen Capture of Climate Information Project Reported Climate-Weather Impacts Interactive Map Web Page |
Persons interested in receiving the reports can contact the Climate Information Project directly (kelly.sponberg@noaa.gov) or view them from the CIP website. All of the CIP reports are archived on the web, and the last year of updates can be viewed via an interactive map.
The Climate Information Project is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Global Programs (NOAA-OGP) as well as the United States Agency for International Development Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID-OFDA).
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Additional information about the Climate Information Project and Climate-Weather Impact Updates can be found at the Office of Global Programs. The Office of Global Programs leads the NOAA Climate and Global Change Program. OGP assists NOAA by sponsoring focused scientific research aimed at understanding climate variability and its predictability. Through studies in these areas, researchers coordinate activities that jointly contribute to improved predictions and assessments of climate variability over a continuum of timescales from season to season, year to year, and over the course of a decade and beyond. |
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