CONTACT:  Patricia Viets, NOAA                       FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                                                               7/27/98

With the growing interest in climatic and weather extremes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration now has a Web site that links to all NOAA Web pages related to climatic extremes, weather events, climate change, El Nino/La Nina, natural disasters, and U.S. climatologies.

The recent surge in news media, government, and individual interest in these topics has lead to numerous inquiries for data and information from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. Now, users can go to a single web page to see what's on line regarding these topics. Within this system, users will find a wealth of data, maps, images (e.g., satellite, radar), and reports for each topic, such as El Nino/La Nina, 1993-1998 Weather Events, U.S. Tornadoes, and Historical Global Extremes.

So, when an extreme event occurs, go to:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/climate/severeweather/severeweather.html

to see what's on line, and to obtain data and information for past years' events. You'll also find this Web page "in the spotlight" on NCDC's main Web site ( http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov).

For additional information, contact: National Climatic Data Center, Climate Services Division, 151 Patton Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801; Fax 828-271-4876; e-mail: orders@ncdc.noaa.gov