Climatology

The State Climatology Program

The Michigan State Climatologist's Office operates within MSU's Department of Geography. Major objectives of the program include:

1. Collection of observations for the purpose of climate monitoring, summarization and dissemination of weather and climate information to the user community;
2. Demonstration of the utility of climate information in the decision making process and assessment of climate impacts;
3. Development of an active research program addressing climate-related issues in the state and region; and
4. Development of an educational element of the program which allows and encourages students to participate in climatological research, gain operational job experience on internships, and provide training in applied use of climatological information (e.g. the weather derivative industry).

Funding support is provided by the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, Michigan State University Extension, the MSU Department of Geography, and MSU's College of Social Science.

Leadership of the program is the responsibility of the State Climatologist, Jeff Andresen, who supervises operational and research activities under the direction of the American Association of State Climatologists (AASC), the Chair of the Geography Department, and the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station. Operational and research support in the program are provided by Peter Kurtz and Aaron Pollyea, while clerical/technical support is provided by Cathy Sernick. Kurtz serves the program as system administrator, with responsibilities including software development and operation, data collection, processing, and archival, and processing some large or unusual data requests. Tracy Aichele serves the program as a Geographic Information Systems specialist. Finally, graduate and undergraduate students are hired as hourly workers in the Climate Office for assistance in research, data processing, and other operational duties as allowed by external funding. In recent years, the program has become increasingly involved in agricultural water use research within the state, and remains engaged in research related to past and projected future climatological changes in the region as well as the impacts of weather and climate on regional agriculture. The program receives a number of requests each month for data climatological data, information, and services. The majority of these requests are from law firms, the insurance industry, and other researcher. A small fee is charged for all commercial requests, which is consistent with the fee structure suggested by AASC.