Shutdown affected long-term weather data

The continued federal government shutdown has resulted in weathercasters increasing proactive ways to get information.

“State climatologists across the nation have lost access to some data sources, such as quality-controlled climatological observations from the National Centers for Environmental Information,” said Justin Glisan, Iowa state climatologist.

Information still available includes the U.S. Drought Monitor, climatological outlooks from the Climate Prediction Center, National Weather Service forecasts, historical weather and climate data, Glisan said.

“Part of my responsibility as state climatologist is to archive and analyze weather and climate data for hundreds of stations across Iowa,” he said. “Fortunately, I have 153 years of temperature and precipitation records for Iowa, along with 138 years of snowfall observations.”

He credits teamwork for maintaining and updating vast amounts of recorded weather data.

“I have also been working with the state archives to organize and digitize this information so that it will be accessible to all Iowans,” he said.

It proved useful this fall with the USDA’s weekly Crop Progress and Condition reports discontinued during the shutdown. Iowa was able to produce weekly estimates of the five-year average harvest progress for corn and soybeans, Glisan said.

Services shut down

The Crop Progress report issued from April through November has not been released since the last week of September. This information is vital across many sectors, as it provides estimates of crop quality, harvest progress and top- and subsoil moisture, among other metrics, Glisan said.