Funding 'lapse' cuts Southern Regional Climate Center at Texas A&M

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Southern Regional Climate Center at Texas A&M was among four Regional Climate Centers nationwide that ceased operations due to lack of funding on Thursday.

According to a website post on the SRCC's website "Base funding for the Southern Regional Climate Center and three other RCCs from the Dept. of Commerce through NOAA lapsed on April 17, 2025. Unfortunately, all data and services offered under the base contract, including this website, will be unavailable unless and until funding is resumed."

The Southern Regional Climate Center is one of six regional climate centers around the United States. The SRCC monitors weather and climate data for six states: Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

The SRCC, based at Texas A&M, is headed by John Nelson-Gammon, the Texas state climatologist.

What is a regional climate center?

The six regional climate centers across the country are managed by NOAA's National Center's for Environmental Information (NCEI).

The purpose of the RCC's according to the NCEI is to "provide efficient, user-driven services that cover three important categories: 

• Provision and development of sector-specific and value-added data products and services
• Establishment of robust, efficient digital infrastructure for providing climate information
• Seamless integration and storage of non-NOAA climate data with traditional NOAA data sources"

How do broadcast meteorologists use regional climate centers?

While individual National Weather Service forecast offices keep track of weather data within their county warning area (CWA), they don't help distribute weather data outside of it for a statewide or regional basis. That's where regional climate center's are involved.

We'll often look back at precipitation and temperature departure-from-normal maps provided by our local RCC for context in how our local weather differs or aligns with a statewide view.

What about the other Regional Climate Centers?

The Western Regional Climate Center and the Northeast Regional Climate Center webpages were still in tact as of this writing, but both labeled a potential end date of June 17.

Websites for the High Plains RCC, Midwestern RCC and Southeast RCC all showed a similar message to the Southern RCC.

What has NOAA said about the cuts?

KXAN reached out to Jasmine Blackwell at NOAA's public affairs department and have yet to read back as of the publishing of this article.

KXAN Chief Meteorologist Nick Bannin interviewed the SRCC's director and Texas' state climatologist John Nielson-Gammon about the cuts. See the full interview in the video at the top of this story.