Dissemination of climate information using the Internet

Americans use climate information to make decisions about personal activiti es and activities affecting the country's economic development. Climate dat a is collected by private citizens, local, state and federal agencies. The state climatologist is responsible for coordinating the dissemination of th is information at the state level. The New Mexico state climatologist devel oped an internet home page to help disseminate climate information. The int ernet home page was developed from a Wildcat bulletin board originally used to disseminate climate information. The internet home page contains data c ollected from the cooperative observer program National Weather Service's a nd an automated weather data network maintained by the state climatologist. Internet users retrieve climate data for specific geographical areas and t ime frames. The data can be presented in text and graphic forms. Climate da ta, presented in text and graphical form, can be retrieved when users submi t information via the internet about the location and time of the data they need. The New Mexico Climate Center home page has a search engine and cont ains information about climate, crop water use, and insect development usin g growing degree-days. A questionnaire can be submitted electronically abou t the usefulness of the information. The distributive aspect of the interne t allows people to share the information and tools needed to effectively us e climate data.