The Montana Climate Change Advisory Committee, established by the state's Department of Environmental Quality, evaluated greenhouse gas reduction opportunities in various places in Montana’s economy. The committee agreed upon the 54 policy recommendations described in this Climate Change Action Plan, designed to help reduce Montana’s emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2020.
This web-based decision support tool, currently available for Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri, is designed to help farmers and farm advisors understand the risks and benefits of using post-planting nitrogen (N) application for corn production. The Corn Split N tool combines historical weather and fieldwork data with economic considerations to determine the feasibility and profitability of completing a second (split) N application within a user-specified time period. This tool may help users with decisions that:
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) are made up of the Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d’Oreilles Tribes. Together, their aboriginal territories include over 20 million acres in western Montana, northern Idaho, and southern Canadian provinces. Today the reservation of the CSKT is just 1.3 million acres along the Flathead River in western Montana.
The Useful to Usable (U2U) Decision Dashboard is an online resource for agricultural advisors, producers, and decision makers in the North Central region of the United States, providing weather, climate, drought, and cropping data.
Barbara and George Cooksley, owners of the Cooksley Ranch in the Sand Hills of Nebraska, know firsthand the benefits of good land stewardship. Having the right number of cattle on their land to maximize their profit without damaging the native grasses is critical for the long-term viability of their ranch. The optimal size of their herd changes from year to year, though, as an array of weather and climate events can affect the best balance between cattle and grasses on the ranch. One event that can change the balance point very quickly is drought.
The Climate Change Atlas documents the current and projected future distribution of 134 tree species and 147 bird species in the eastern United States. Changes in temperature and precipitation will affect the future distribution of tree species, and changes in the distribution of trees will have an effect on many species of birds. The Atlas can help to answer a range of questions concerning current and projected suitable habitat in the year 2100.
If you’re anyone from an engineer or hydrologist to a community planner or business manager, you can use the “QuickMap” tool to easily visualize and access data from the western U.S. at multiple levels. You can display information at the state and county levels, or analyze data within certain watershed boundaries. The tool even allows you to draw a shape on a map to extract climate data from a region of your choosing.
Unlike traditional weather forecasts that predict daily temperatures and precipitation amounts for an area, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center outlooks offer users forecasts of future weather conditions relative to what's normal for their region.
The tools allow users to view color-coded maps of categories of forecast conditions for their region relative to their average norms. The maps are available as either extended-range (6–10 days and 8–14 days) or long-range (1- and 3-month periods) forecasts. The latter predictions are available for up to one year in the future.