Tracking Down Data

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and Climate Central held a briefing to discuss a key underpinning of the U.S. economy: publicly-available weather and climate data. Federal data is used as an input to weather models that are essential to public safety and helps businesses—from farms and insurance companies to airlines and utilities—make daily decisions. Historically, Congress has played a central role in directing federal agencies to collect, analyze, and report weather and climate data. But today, hundreds of federal scientific datasets and reports, like the national climate assessments, have been removed from public access, altered, or buried. Popular climate webpages (e.g., climate.gov and EJScreen) have been taken down or archived. 

In this new information environment, universities, nonprofits, and national associations are stepping up to fill the gaps in maintaining weather and climate data left by the federal government. Panelists shared where to look for these datasets and explore how these organizations are maintaining public access to critical information without the resources afforded by the federal government. They also described the implications of these changes for end users, from individuals using weather apps to multinational corporations making significant business decisions. 

Highlights

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Sectors and businesses across the economy—including emergency management, regional planning, public health, farming, insurance, and utilities—as well as state and federal agencies rely on weather and climate data for decision-making. The data pipeline starts with raw observations collected by instruments like satellites and sensors. These observations are then validated, standardized, and checked for errors. Once verified, raw measurements are used to build models, forecasts, and estimates, which provide the basis for warnings and maps that are delivered to end users. Some of the most foundational and critical federal data programs have been authorized and continually appropriated funding by Congress, and this investment has made U.S. climate and environmental data the gold standard. Many federal agencies have long had a critical role across the data pipeline. In 2025, however, the federal government ended the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the National Climate Assessment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Change Indicators website, elements of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, and Climate.gov. While they cannot replace the federal government's essential role in the climate data ecosystem, numerous efforts have been stood up to maintain critical data sets and tools like Climate Shift Index, Climateliteracy.earth, the U.S. Drought Monitor.

 

Rep. Dave Min, U.S. Representative (D-Calif.)

• The world faces rising temperatures and intense disasters like the Los Angeles wildfires in 2025. Society must act to preserve the planet for future generations.
• The bipartisan, bicameral Digital Coast Reauthorization Act of 2025 (H.R.4256/S.2245) would strengthen free and public access to weather and climate data by reauthorizing the Digital Coast Program under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Digital Coast Program provides real-time decision-ready data, which includes detailed information on coasts and infrastructure (including underground infrastructure and subsurface utilities). The information can be used to help entities like farms, airlines, utilities, and insurers plan operations.
• Communities can use this data to prepare for flooding, sea level rise, and extreme weather, making it important for climate resilience, public safety, and economic stability.

 

Sonia Wang, Senior Advisor, Climate Data Collaborative, Data Foundation  

• Sectors and businesses across the economy—including emergency management, regional planning, public health, farming, insurance, and utilities—as well as state and federal agencies rely on weather and climate data for decision-making.
• The data pipeline starts with raw observations collected by instruments like satellites and sensors. These observations are then validated, standardized, and checked for errors. Once verified, raw measurements are used to build models, forecasts, and estimates, which provide the basis for warnings and maps that are delivered to end users.
• Numerous federal agencies take part in the data landscape, and information on any given topic is often supported by multiple different agencies' data sources. For example, if you are looking for information on forests, it will not all come from the U.S. Forest Service. National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellites monitor tree cover, Smithsonian maintains a global network of forest data plots, and multiple agencies track wildfire smoke. 
• Federal agencies have different roles across the data pipeline. Some agencies are strictly focused on science and research while others do just operations or regulations. Some agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, have offices that work in all three areas.
• The federal government has an essential role in maintaining long-term data sets and records, which allow scientists to determine trends and end users to make decisions. Discontinuing programs often leads to infrastructure decommissioning that is expensive to rebuild later. Federal agency restructuring can compromise institutional knowledge and system integrity.
• Much of the climate and weather data infrastructure in the federal agencies is based on decades of interpersonal relationships and goodwill between offices and agencies. This means there are many single points of failure that can be hard to map until systems stop working.
• The federal government has lost more than 10,000 PhD-level employees in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math under the Trump Administration, gutting much of the specialized experience that goes into the data pipeline. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been hit especially hard by personnel and budget cuts.
• Public Environmental Data Partners, Climate Central, and the University of Maryland have replicated shuttered federal government datasets, tools, and resources to elevate climate- and nature-focused programs despite federal cuts.
• States have also responded by making data standards more stringent or submitting comments to the federal government to encourage federal data collection programs to continue. 
• Building back climate and weather data infrastructure is an opportunity to be intentional about adapting systems and rebuilding stronger.

 

Tom Di Liberto, Media Director, Climate Central  

• In 2025, the federal government ended the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the National Climate Assessment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Change Indicators website, elements of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, and Climate.gov.
• This loss of data also represents the loss of stories that put that data into context.
• Federal data that is still available continues to underpin many products in Climate Central’s Climate Services Program. For example, the Climate Shift Index tracks the contributions of climate change to extreme heat events using NOAA’s weather models. The index also uses those same government models to track the contribution of climate change to hurricane intensity, ocean temperatures, and sea level rise.
• The Coastal Risk Finder draws from decades of flood data and socioeconomic information from the federal government to run risk assessments. Ensuring that data sets like these continue to be available from the federal government is essential.
• Climate Central’s monthly climate brief shares climate information, statistics, graphics, interviews, and billion-dollar disaster overviews in an attempt to fill the vacuum left by the lack of agency press briefings and expert communication.
• Climate Central is compiling a billion-dollar disaster data set designed to replace what had previously been produced by NOAA.

 

Julian Reyes, Chief of Staff, Union of Concerned Scientists

• Climateliteracy.earth launched a tool that helps find federal climate resources that have been taken offline, as well as a climate services directory that includes tools at risk of disappearing. Despite this and similar efforts, the climate services ecosystem is fragile and fragmented.
• Some programs that have been targeted for cuts include the USDA climate hubs, the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Climate Adaptation Science Centers, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
• Agricultural and natural resource management relies on climate data, especially for conservation outcomes and crop insurance decisions, which require data on climate risk, variability, and trends.
• The U.S. Drought Monitor provides producers with the latest drought information, enabling them to react accordingly. The Farm Service Agency uses the Drought Monitor for secretarial disaster designations, which facilitate access to emergency loans.
• The Climate Toolbox is a collection of web tools that offer climate and hydrologic data for the contiguous United States. The Climate Mapper Tool, for example, visualizes seasonal and longer-term climate projections, including variables specifically for agriculture. The U.S. Water Watcher tool maps current and past droughts with standard drought metrics.
• AgroClimate is a tool focused on the southeastern United States that provides information on the effects of weather and climate on agriculture, including a chill-hours calculator.
• The AgRisk Viewer provides over 30 years of crop insurance loss data from the USDA Risk Management Agency. The Federal Crop Insurance Program is a safety net for farmers against the impacts of weather and price fluctuations. This tool outlines agricultural vulnerabilities by combining biophysical and socioeconomic factors.
• Grass-Cast is a grassland productivity forecast for livestock producers for the Southwest and the Great Plains.
• The Seedlot Selection Tool helps forest managers match plant species with planting sites based on current and future climates. This is especially useful for post-wildfire restoration.
• Climate Engine allows users to interact with a variety of geospatial data sets that track vegetation, snow, and water, as well as temperature and rainfall. Its maps provide information on both long- and short-term droughts to help inform resource management decisions.

 

Q&A

 

Q: How has Congress been engaged in the topic of climate data collection and dissemination, and what is at stake for Congress?

Wang

• Some of the most foundational and critical federal data programs have been authorized and continually appropriated funding by Congress, and this investment has made U.S. climate and environmental data the gold standard.
• Moving forward, Congressional oversight and transparency is needed on how the executive branch is implementing authorized and appropriated programs to make sure that foundational data remains funded and publicly available.
• Staff cuts are a major issue, especially when these employees are highly specialized and have been working on data sets or networks for 20 years or more.

Di Liberto

• Certain parts of climate data sets have been run by a single person for a long period of time or by a single piece of code that was created by an employee who is now retired. By reducing so much staff at once, the data collection ecosystem becomes more vulnerable.

Reyes

• If you do not fund climate data, the public is less safe, less healthy, and less secure. For example, with the U.S. Forest Service reorganization, a laboratory closure at the Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Lab in Seattle, Washington, means the lab would no longer provide data that was used for every wildfire evacuation.

 

Q: Which of these data sets or resources are required under statute, and if so, which statute? Also, is there a compilation of the appropriations for these data sets and information about under which authority those appropriations were provided?

Wang

• The Data Foundation has been trying to track down the answer to that question. In terms of compilation of appropriations, there is some concern about putting a target on the back of certain programs that are maybe flying under the radar. The Data Foundation has been cataloging impacts to specific programs, assets, and infrastructure and tracking them by the budget line items to see how they might be impacted.

Reyes

• The Global Change Research Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-606), which underpins the U.S. Global Change Research Program, calls for a National Climate Assessment every five years. That would be one example of a document that contains statutory authority.
• Many of the tools discussed here support important authorities or different things in appropriations bills.

 

Q: What would you advise people outside the government to do to encourage the federal government to continue these critical data sources and tools? In addition, how do terrestrial and ecological data and information sources contribute to public safety and climate resilience?

Di Liberto

• Be vocal about which climate data sets are useful and critical for your industry or communities so the government knows the impact and importance of these data sets. The more you talk about it, the more it becomes something that people understand is so incredibly important.
• For ecological data, NOAA’s Fish Stock Assessment and a variety of other indicator webpages look at biodiversity data, but these resources are also being impacted by staffing cuts.

Wang

• Become familiar with the Federal Register, where anyone can submit public comments. Agencies listen when opinions are put on public record.
• Another way to talk about the importance of climate and environmental data is to emphasize how it affects your health, economics, and hazards.

Reyes

• The USGS acts as the science agency for the Department of the Interior. Without USGS data, the Bureau of Land Management does not have the climate and environmental information needed to make land management decisions.

 

Compiled by Aastha Singh and Andie May Hardin and edited for clarity and length. This is not a transcript.