The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😜
Main Topic: Helene Causes Climate and Data Outage at NOAA NCEI Headquarters
Dear Diary. A few of you might wonder why I have not written my ‘ Records Scoreboard’ post yet. That’s because the U.S. main headquarters where climate stats get crunched and disseminated got a real black eye. Hurricane Helene remained intact enough to decimate the southern Appalachian area along with Ashville NC where the National Center for Environmental Information is located as it moved northward from the Gulf of Mexico. Disturbingly as I joked with a few people, Helene has done what Trump intends to do next year to climate information about six months early.
It’s uncertain how long NCEI September 2024 climate reports will be delayed or when the site I use the most to glean counts of record reports will be up. The folks at NCEI never thought that their headquarters would be damaged greatly from a hurricane since it was nestled among the rugged maintains of the Appalachians far away from the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Helene proved that no place is safe from landfalling hurricanes, even those hundreds of miles inland.
Here are more details off the NCEI site, which at least does remain up:
Helene Devastates Southeast, Impacts NOAA NCEI Headquarters
Employees and data holdings safe, many key webpages, products and services unavailable
Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images
Published
October 4, 2024
As many of our followers have realized by our recent silence, NCEI headquarters in Asheville, NC, has been severely impacted by Hurricane Helene. First and foremost, we’re grateful to report that all of our employees and staff have been accounted for. All data holdings–including paper and film records–are also safe.
The scale of destruction and impact Helene has had across the Southeast, especially on its people, has been massive, and we stand in solidarity with all who are suffering. We also want to express our deepest gratitude towards those who have reached out with support, and encourage all to keep expressing their support now and in the future. The road to recovery for the entire region will be a long one, and one we will be traveling as well, both as people and as an international data center focused on meeting the data information needs of those we serve.
All of the employees located at the North Carolina NCEI site also express how proud of and thankful we are for the 300 NCEI employees in Colorado, Maryland, Mississippi and around the country for their care, support and professionalism helping us recover. Our team is truly unmatched.
Now to more formal updates on NCEI’s functionality–here is what we know:
- NCEI’s network service provider has limited functionality and there is no definitive timeline for when it will be fully operational.
- All archived data at NCEI is currently inaccessible, and limited new data is being ingested. We are working with our partners to minimize the risk of any potential data loss; however, Helene has made many key products and services unavailable at this time.
- Products impacted include access to NCEI’s weather and climate data. NCEI’s monthly State of the Climate reports and data will be be delayed until services are restored, which means the September 2024 U.S. and global climate reports, originally scheduled to be released on October 8 and 10 respectively, will be unable to meet this deadline. At this time, we do not have more specifics on when they might be available.
The scale of the loss many of us have seen is unimaginable to many, but our sense of duty as public servants that support our nation’s science, security, and data stewardship remains unwavering. We will be back as soon as we can.
Some NOAA NCEI websites, systems down due to Helene devastation in Asheville, NC
Restoration efforts are underway, some climate-related data products affected
October 2, 2024
Heavy rains from Hurricane Helene caused record flooding and damage like that seen here on September 28, 2024, in Asheville, North Carolina. Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend on September 26 with winds up to 140 mph and storm surges. As of October 2, the reported death toll from Helene was more than 160 people across several states, which is expected to increase. (Image credit: Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)
UPDATED 2:45 p.m. EDT, 10/04/24
The devastation that Hurricane Helene caused in Asheville, NC, and surrounding areas has significantly impacted operations at NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI, www.ncei.noaa.gov).
A number of NCEI’s websites and systems are down, and at present, NOAA does not have a timeline for when they will be fully back up and running again. Work to restore affected sites and systems is underway. Some data products used by other websites, such as Climate.gov and Drought.gov, are also being affected. (Please note: NOAA’s weather.gov and weather forecasting products are not affected by this partial outage.)
All archived data at NCEI is currently inaccessible, and limited new data is being ingested. We are working with our partners to minimize the risk of any potential data loss; however, Helene has made many key products and services unavailable at this time. The products impacted include access to NCEI’s past weather and climate data.
NCEI’s monthly State of the Climate reports and data will be be delayed until services are restored, which will have implications for both the public and private sectors, including agriculture, energy, retail, reinsurance, transportation and media. These reports and data rely on expert analysis from a team of dedicated staff, who are all personally impacted by the disaster. The September 2024 U.S. and global climate reports, originally scheduled to be released on October 8 and 10 respectively, will be delayed. At this time, we do not have more specifics on when they might be available.
We appreciate your patience while our teams restore our systems and are sorry for the inconvenience.
Our thoughts are with the people of western North Carolina, including affected NOAA staff, and all of those who are dealing with the unprecedented aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Media contact
John Bateman, john.jones-bateman@noaa.gov, (202) 424-0929
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is some more September 2024 climatology (Prior reports are listed on older daily diary blogs for each calendar day.):
Here is More Climate News from Monday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)