Legislature helps fund USU programs: Climate Center receives $120,000
Recently the Utah Legislature decided to fund $120,000 for the Utah Climate Center, located at Utah State University.
Donald Jensen, state climatologist, said the center has been encouraging the Legislature to provide funding for about four years.
“I asked for $250,000, and I was pleased with $120,000,” he said.
Television and radio weather stations signed a petition to influence the Legislature to finally take action in getting the Climate Center the funding it has needed. Weather forecasters Mark and Kevin Eubanks were heavily involved in helping the Legislature know the importance of the center’s work, Jensen said.
The center belongs to the Utah Department of Agriculture but is located on campus because USU has the staff and needed expertise to make the center run successfully, Jensen said.
In the past, the university has had to find ways to provide the money needed to make the Climate Center run, he said. It has gotten money from the USU Agricultural Experiment Station, grants and the Institute for Dam Safety Risk Management, he said.
Jensen says although he needs about $250,000 to run the center properly, he is grateful to finally be receiving some government funding.
The money will be used mainly for salaries and new equipment, he said.
The Climate Center is the archive for weather data in Utah and across the nation, Jensen said. It is important in that it charts normal temperatures, he said.
The center works closely with weather stations to report the record high and low temperatures in weather behavior, Jensen said.
“We keep track of all the weather observations in Utah. We receive about 59,000 pieces of weather info daily,” he said.
The center receives weather information from about 200 different areas in every state across the nation.
The Climate Center is responsible for developing the safety criteria for the building of dams in Utah. This has ended up saving Utah about $42 million because of the extensive research that was done, Jensen said.
Another study the center is done is one on short thunderstorms in Utah.
With the fear of constant drought in the state, the center’s importance becomes even more apparent, Jensen said. It has the ability to take a closer look at historical weather patterns. This helps Utah to know when there is cause for concern about various weather conditions, he said.
Lee Burke, assistant to the USU president for government relations, said, “It is important to us and to the state. This center especially helps and serves farmers and ranchers in Utah.”
Burke said USU had been operating from its own funds for long enough.
The money will now help the center to continue the weather research needed to better understand the many aspects of Utah climate, Jensen said.
–alwhite@cc.usu.edu