North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies - NCICS

05/20/2026

The work of NCICS's Dr. Jennifer Runkle is featured in this Yale Climate Connections story on climate change and mental health.

"Direct exposures, such as extreme heat, storms, or air pollution, can affect the body’s stress response systems and disrupt sleep and physiological regulation,” explained Runkle.

Slow-moving changes to the environment are taking a toll.

05/12/2026

NCICS’s Laura Stevens, Mark Essig, and Liz Cox present “Exploring the State Climate Summaries,” 11–12:30 tomorrow (Wednesday) at the National Adaptation Forum in Pittsburgh. Details: https://whova.com/embedded/session/ImSwHrGPiqjAGsxJEeprWB0NhRgRxYO6LKHkiDy5rkQ%3D/5183009/?widget=primary

05/05/2026

NCICS’s Liz Cox, Philip Casey, and Alethia Kielbasa visited Black Mountain Elementary to teach fifth graders about weather and climate. Learn more in this story from Buncombe County Schools.

🌦️📡🌎 Black Mountain Elementary School (BMES) fifth grade students recently had the opportunity to s...

04/24/2026

NCICS is helping out with The Nature Record, the first major assessment of nature in the US. A working draft of the report is now open for public comment.

News about the natural world is often discouraging—declining songbird populations, toxic algae, trees killed by invasive pests, and more.

04/09/2026

“The State of the Cloud-Native Geospatial Ecosystem,” presented by Rich Signell of Open Science Computing, is now available on the NCICS YouTube channel. Dr. Signell discusses recent advances in infrastructure that have transformed remote sensing and Earth system model analysis.

Presenter: Dr. Rich SignellSignificant advancements in cloud-native geospatial infrastructure over the past year have transformed remote sensing and Earth sy...

03/26/2026

NCICS’s Liz Cox will present “Innovative Tools for Enhanced Climate Engagement” at the Southern Appalachian Weather and Climate Workshop, which runs tomorrow and Saturday at UNC Asheville. Full agenda here:

Abstracts

02/06/2026

Come work with us!
NCICS is hiring a Human Resources Specialist.

The Human Resources Specialist serves as the primary point of coordination for all Human Resources (HR) activities for the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies (NCICS). In this role you will support the Institute leadership and staff by administering HR processes and serving as a liaison wit...

01/29/2026

NCICS at today (Thursday):

Carl J. Schreck (co-chair): Response of High-Impact Tropical Weather to a Warming Climate: Bridging Weather and Climate I, 8:30–10, 352D

Yuhan (Douglas) Rao (co-chair): Satellite-Based Long-Term and Climatological Earth Observations II, 8:30–10, 370D

Anand K. Inamdar: Extending the HIRS Data Record from the NOAA’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellites, 8:45–9, 370D

Carl J. Schreck: Observed Trends in Tropical Cyclone Intensities Using an Updated Homogeneous Dataset: ADT-HURSAT, 9:30–9:45, 352D

Carl J. Schreck (co-chair): Response of High-Impact Tropical Weather to a Warming Climate: Bridging Weather and Climate II, 10:45–12, 352D

Liz Cox (moderator), Laura E. Stevens (panelist): Navigating Climate Futures: Fast and Slow Thinking in Applied Climatology, 10:45–12, 381A

David A. Coates, John Edward Uehling, Olivier Prat: Evaluation of IMERG and CMORPH Satellite Precipitation Products with Respect to Extreme Precipitation from Subdaily to Multi-day Accumulation Scales Against in-situ Reference Network, 3–4:30, Hall B3

Twenty-three NCICS staff are contributing to presentations, posters, and other activities at the 106th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, being held in Houston, Texas, January 25–29, 2026. See below for a list of participating staff (in boldface) and their sessions. All times are US C...

01/28/2026

NCICS at today (Wednesday):

Liz Cox: Tools and Products for Real-time Monitoring of the Climate, 8:30–10, 381A

Carl Schreck, Shuhai Li, Kyle Wodzicki: Global Station-Based Downscaling with STAR, 8:45–9, 381A

Ronald Leeper, Emma Scott: Exploring the Relationship between Vegetation Health and Soil Moisture–Based Drought Indices, 9:30–9:45, 332A

Liz Cox: Tools and Products for Real-Time Monitoring of the Climate II, 10:45–12, 381A

Ken Kunkel (panelist): Town Hall Meeting – A Discussion on the U.S. Climate Collection, 12:15–1:15, 351B

Liz Cox: Tools and Products for Real-Time Monitoring of the Climate III,
1:45–3, 381A

Yuhan (Douglas) Rao (co-chair): Digital Twins for Cities: Advancing Urban Intelligence for Adaptation and Resilience, 1:45–3, 371B

Emma Scott, Ronald Leeper: Rapid Drought Change Relationships to Intra- and Interseasonal Modes of Variability Across Drought Indices, 2:15–2:30, 332A

Emma Scott: The Accumulated Climate Extremes Index: How Weird Was Your Year?, 3–4:30, Hall B3

Jenny Dissen, Aashish Malik: Visualizing and Quantifying the Economic Value of NOAA Solar Data Across the Renewable Energy Value Chain, 3–4:30, Hall B3

Alethia Kielbasa, John Uehling, Carl Schreck, Kyle Wodzicki: Bias Correcting GFDL-SPEAR for Use in Near-Future Global Climate Projections with Military Applications, 3–4:30, Hall B3

Shuhai Li, Carl Schreck, Kyle Wodzicki: Improving Density Altitude Projections for Aircraft Operations Using Statistical Downscaling, 3–4:30, Hall B3

Yuhan (Douglas) Rao, Aashish Malik, Anand Inamdar: Towards the Creation of GOES Fundamental Climate Data Record, 4:45–5, 370D

Yuhan (Douglas) Rao: Putting Helene in Context with Long-Term Satellite Data Records, 5–5:15, 370D

Garrett Graham, Alethia Kielbasa, Shuhai Li: Daily Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (DOISST) Version 3: Improvements in Input Data, Preprocessing Methods, and Cloud Computing Capability, 5:45–6, 370D

Twenty-three NCICS staff are contributing to presentations, posters, and other activities at the 106th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, being held in Houston, Texas, January 25–29, 2026. See below for a list of participating staff (in boldface) and their sessions. All times are US C...

01/27/2026

NCICS at today (Tuesday):

Jenny Dissen and Liz Cox: The Critical Role of Data in Wildfire Preparedness: Engaging Communities and Stakeholders for Enhanced Resilience in Western North Carolina Post-Hurricane Helene, 3–4:30, Hall B3

Jenny Dissen, Otis Brown, Jonathan Brannock: NODD’s Evolving Ecosystem: Driving AI-Ready Environmental Intelligence Through User Engagement, 5:30–5:45, 372A

Xiangdong Zhang, Circulation Dynamics Driving Extreme Heatwaves, 5:30–5:45, 310C

01/26/2026

NCICS at today (Monday). All times Central:

Ken Kunkel: Extreme Precipitation Trends In the Context of Helene Rainfall, 8:45–9:00, 332B; NOAA Atlas-15: Challenges in Estimating Future Projections of Heavy Rainfall Frequencies, 11:30–11:45, 332B

Jenny Dissen: Role of NOAA Data in Retail Industry Approach to Preparedness and Resilience, 8:45–9:00, Grand Ballroom C

Liz Cox: Innovative Tools for Enhanced Climate Engagement, 5:15–5:30, 351A

Twenty-three NCICS staff are contributing to presentations, posters, and other activities at the 106th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, being held in Houston, Texas, January 25–29, 2026. See below for a list of participating staff (in boldface) and their sessions. All times are US C...