NOAA in your backyard: Central

Educational opportunities and staff for Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wyoming

NOAA in Your State & Territory

State by state listings of NOAA facilities and programs
A summary of NOAA facilities, programs, or activities based in, or focused on, your state or territory.

National Weather Service

School visits • Forecast office tours • Student and educator resources
The National Weather Service provides weather, hydrologic, and climate forecasts and warnings for the United States, its territories, adjacent waters and ocean areas.

  • To find your local Weather Forecast Office (WFO), visit the National Weather Service local contact page and enter your city and state or zip code in the box. A website, email, and phone number will show up. This is the best contact information for each office. 
  • Visit weather.gov and enter your zip code to find your local WFO.

NOAA Boulder labs (Boulder, CO)

Student and teacher opportunities • Educational resources • Tours
In Boulder, Colorado, NOAA supports a powerful range of research, data collection and dissemination programs, and operational weather forecasts of Earth’s atmosphere and the space environment. Most of NOAA’s Boulder activities take place in the David Skaggs Research Center at Broadway Street and Rayleigh Road.

Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) (Fort Collins, CO)

Student and teacher opportunities • Real-time data • Local events
CIRA’s vision is to conduct interdisciplinary research in the atmospheric sciences by entraining skills beyond the meteorological disciplines and exploiting advances in engineering and computer science to assist NOAA, Colorado State University, the State of Colorado, and the Nation through the application of their research to areas of societal benefit.

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) (Boulder, CO)

Educator workshops and resources • Student opportunities
CIRES is a partnership between NOAA and the University of Colorado-Boulder in their areas of expertise including weather and climate, changes at Earth’s poles, air quality and atmospheric chemistry, water resources, and solid Earth sciences

Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations (CIWRO) (Norman, OK)

Educator resources • Student opportunities • Publications
CIMMS promotes collaborative research between NOAA and the University of Oklahoma scientists on problems of mutual interest to improve basic understanding of mesoscale meteorological phenomena, weather radar, and regional climate to help produce better forecasts and warnings that save lives and property. 

National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) (Norman, OK)

Educator resources • Student opportunities • Outreach events • Severe weather 101
The NSSL serves to enhance NOAA’s capabilities to provide accurate and timely forecasts and warnings of hazardous weather events through research to advance the understanding of weather processes, research to improve forecasting and warning techniques, and development of operational applications.

Storm Prediction Center (SPC) (Norman, OK)

Educator and student resources • Office tours • Forecasts
The SPC issues forecasts and watches for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes over the contiguous United States. They also monitor heavy rain, heavy snow and fire weather events across the U.S. and issues specific national products for those hazards.

Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) (Boulder, CO)

Multimedia • Lesson plans • Career profiles • Training modules
The SWPC is the national and world warning center for space weather events. They provide the Nation with critical space weather forecasts, warnings and alerts to protect life and property in space, in the air, at sea, and on the land.

National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) (Boulder, CO)

Student and teacher opportunities • Educational resources • Tours
NCEI is responsible for hosting and providing access to one of the most significant archives on Earth, with comprehensive oceanic, atmospheric, and geophysical data. From the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun and from million-year-old sediment records to near real-time satellite images, NCEI is the Nation’s leading authority for environmental information.

NCEI Paleoclimatology Branch (Boulder, CO)

Discussion board • Educator resources • Multimedia • Datasets
NCEI’s Paleoclimatology Branch is the world’s largest archive of climate and paleoclimatology data. The Paleoclimatology Branch operates the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology, an Applied Research Center for Paleoclimatology, and partners with national and international science initiatives around the world to expand the use of paleoclimatology data.

Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) (Fort Collins, CO)

National citizen science program • Educator resources • Data
CoCoRaHS is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation. By using low-cost measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an interactive website, our aim is to provide the highest quality data for natural resource, education, and research applications.

High Plains Regional Climate Center (HPRCC) (Lincoln, NE)

Classroom visits • Outreach events • Data
HPRCC personnel work closely with scientists from other regional and federal climate centers on climate services and programs and provide a regional structure for climate applications. The long-term objectives of the HPRCC are to carry out applied climate studies, develop improved climate information products, and provide climate services in the High Plains region.

National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) (Boulder, CO)

Educator and student resources • Multimedia • Data • Google Earth files
NSDIC supports research into our world’s frozen realms: the snow, ice, glaciers, frozen ground and climate interactions that make up Earth’s cryosphere. NSIDC manages and distributes scientific data, creates tools for data access, supports data users, performs scientific research, and educates the public about the cryosphere.

National Ocean Science Bowl (NOSB)

Regional competitions in ocean sciences
NOTE: The NOSB national office will not host a national finals competition in 2023-24 or 2024-25. Some regional offices will be hosting competitions. Please reach out to contacts below for more details.
NOSB is a national high school academic competition with regional competitions for student teams to test their knowledge of the marine sciences including biology, chemistry, physics, and geology.

Historical and real-time data

Local historical weather events and data

NOAA Science On a Sphere® (SOS) locations

Earth systems data projected on a six-foot globe
SOS is a room-sized, global display system that uses computers and video projectors to display data onto a six foot diameter sphere, analogous to a giant animated globe. It was developed by researchers at NOAA to help illustrate complex environmental processes in a captivating way.