NOAA announces $7.2 million to better predict severe weather

Dec. 1 (UPI) -- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will spend $7.2 million to better predict extreme weather events and the cause and effect of climate change, including tropical cyclones, heat extremes, precipitation, global weather patterns and climate drivers, such as the El Nino and La Nina weather phenomena, the administration announced Thursday.

NOAA said it will work with partners on weather and climate research that will help communities, businesses and industries better plan for the future. The projects aim to produce climate projections for multiple years and decades into the future that will help communities plan for severe weather events and mitigate the effects, reducing damage and losses that occur from extreme events.

"NOAA has a long history of expert weather and climate forecasting," said U.S Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. "This new set of projects, which were made possible by funding from President Biden's Investing in America agenda and the Inflation Reduction Act, are designed to significantly advance the quality and breadth of products NOAA provides to better prepare the nation, our communities and industries for the impacts of climate change in future years and decades."

The investment will fund 13 projects across the United States, including one with Penn State University that is specifically designed to understand extratropical cyclones, which include blizzards and Nor'easters. Extratropical cyclones are the most common drivers of weather extremes in the mid-and high-latitude regions of the United States.

These storms draw energy from the interaction of cold and warm air masses, and it is still not clear how climate change is affecting these cyclones and how their impacts, such as heavy rain, snow and strong winds, are changing and will change in the future.