Photo from Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune

By KASEY BUBNASH and JOSIE ABUGOV | Staff writers

The center that provides near real-time climate data to government agencies and private companies across the South was shut down Thursday after its base federal funding expired. 

According to a statement posted to its now defunct website, the Southern Regional Climate Center is one of four such centers across the U.S. that were abruptly shuttered after lapses in funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

"Unfortunately, all data and services offered under the base contract, including this website, will be unavailable unless and until funding is resumed," the statement reads. "Monitor this website during the upcoming days, weeks, and months for information on replacement resources that may be offered with alternative funding sources."

As of 3 p.m. Thursday, only the regional climate centers encompassing the northeast and western U.S. were still up and running. Alerts on their homepages, however, warned that "support for this website may be unavailable starting June 17, 2025."

Alison Tarter, a research specialist with the Southern Climate Research Center, said the center's five-year contract is funded by grants that have to be approved by the federal government each year. This year's deadline came and went without approval, she said. 

For now, the center, based in College Station, Texas, is not providing services, its website is down and its handful of staff members are finding other work, Tarter said. That could change, she said, if the center's funding is approved. 

“We really honestly, on our end, don’t know much," she said. "We’re just kind of dead in the water without something happening in the federal level.”

'Crucial' data

The closures come amid roller-coaster threats to cut funding and staff to much of the federal government, including NOAA, the country's leading climate and weather agency. 

Scott Smullen, a spokesperson for NOAA, declined to comment on the situation, citing a "long-standing practice" of not discussing internal personnel and management matters. 

NOAA's Regional Climate Center Program was first established in 1983 in an effort to expand access to climate information, making data collected from various sources uniform and easy to use. Today, climate centers in six U.S. regions — the High Plains, Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, South and West — offer publicly accessible and custom data sets across a wide range of sectors, including wildlife and fisheries departments, farmers and ranchers, construction companies, transportation departments, climatologists and meteorologists. 

"Their data is sort of crucial to our monitoring mission," Louisiana State Climatologist Jay Grymes said. 

The Southern Regional Climate Center is operated by the Texas A&M University System and encompasses Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma. It collects data from sources across the region and then compiles it all into one, easily accessible format in real time. 

Alexa Trischler, a meteorologist at WWL-Louisiana, said the regional center is a "valuable resource" and that losing it could harm the field.

"Looking at past climate data often helps with putting better long-term forecasts together in the future to keep people safe and ready for what's next," Trischler said. "It's always a huge benefit when you're able to have this data at your fingertips to make projects about the future, and to have this go away is disheartening." 

'Unacceptable'

Following the website shutdown, a range of broadcast and private sector meteorologists took to social media, calling the move "unacceptable" and "a disaster" while stressing the importance of the data. 

The New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness said the data is important for drought monitoring, conducting "deep dives" into climate data and gauging climate norms based on historical precedents, among other purposes.

But it is used for purposes far beyond forecasting, Grymes noted. A construction company might use it to prove they couldn't complete a project on deadline due to several days of rain. A farmer might use it to find the right time to plant or harvest crops. Grymes, as a climatologist, uses it to quickly analyze and monitor the state's weather patterns. 

“The reality is you would be hard pressed to come up with any industry that’s not impacted by weather," he said. 

Grymes said regional climate center data is also “the backbone” for some National Weather Service products. 

“So killing this program — it’s really hard at this point to evaluate just how much of a problem this is going to be, not only for offices like mine but also people all across the country, including the weather service," Grymes said. 

Grymes said it's unclear whether the Southern Regional Climate Center's data would still be available in some other format. 

"It's important that we don't lose important weather data from any entity going forward because it could potentially negatively impact forecasting," Trischler said. 

John Neilson-Gammon, who leads the Southern Regional Climate Center, did not return a call requesting comment.