By WEATHER WORLD on Oct 7, 2011, at 12:36 PM Updated on 10/07 at 12:36 PM
WEATHER WORLD
At the cookout I went to Sunday evening, it was tank top, cutoff jean shorts and flip flops. My friend said to me, “you look ...
This blog was inspired by some of our early morning commenters on the weather forecast story .
Yes, as one of you pointed ...
The deluge earlier this month was exciting. For a second, I though that maybe the near-record parched May was just a fluke ...
If Norman wasn’t the place to be for weather research in the south, or even the nation, this announcement today should help.
The U.S. Department of the Interior selected the University of Oklahoma to be one of eight regional climate science centers nationwide, school and Interior officials announced Friday.
The center, which will be housed at the OU Research Campus in Norman, will aim to provide a link between weather and climate projections about how to manage federal lands, natural resources and fish and wildlife, according to a release from the OU College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences today.
"The nationwide network of Climate Science Centers will provide the scientific talent and commitment necessary for understanding how climate change and other landscape stressors will change the face of the United States, and how the Department of the Interior, as our nation's chief steward of natural and cultural resources, can prepare and respond," said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
OU will lead the way, with a consortium that includes Oklahoma State University, Texas Tech University, Louisiana State University, the Chickasaw Nation, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the National Oceanis and Atmospheric Association’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.
"The Department of Interior's selection of OU as site of the South-Central Climate Science Center underlines the University's weather expertise and reaffirms the strength of the consortium team we have assembled to address the region's distinct challenges,” said OU President David L. Boren.
This is good news for Oklahoma. Aside from the additional 100 jobs the center will bring, Oklahoma will be at the center of research into long-term changes in our climate and their effects.
We know about storms in this state, but what about how those storm patterns change over time? Or what about the massive, persistent drought that is plaguing the southern plains? The center will look at these patterns and how they will change the land and better prepare us to adapt and prepare.
We love the land in this state. We work off of it, we live off of it, we appreciate its beauty. We hunt and fish, and try to be good stewards of our state. This center will hopefully help us better manage what we have to ensure generations can enjoy it, researchers said.
"As the coordinated research carried out through this new Center progresses, it will advance our understanding of the relationships between weather, climate and our landscape,” said Renee McPherson, state climatologist of Oklahoma. “This promises to help us to be better prepared for not only the future, but for managing the extremes we already experience. This is not science for the ivory tower. This is science to solve real problems faced by real decision-makers year in and year out."
--Jerry Wofford
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