State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC)

Operational Details

A fully-detailed set of operational guidelines are also available in National Weather Service Instruction 10-1004.

1. Purpose

The formation of a State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC) addresses the consideration of potentially record-setting extreme meteorological elements observed at the statewide level. The purpose of the SCEC is to mirror the activities of the National Climatic Extremes Committee (NCEC), but for observations challenging state records, rather than national ones. The SCEC serves as a panel that will make determinations regarding state records, ultimately referred to the Climate Monitoring Chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). With the acknowledgment of the NCEI Climate Monitoring Chief, such records will become officially sanctioned, and recognized by the meteorological and climatological community.

2. Scope

The SCEC is to provide counsel and a recommendation regarding the status of an observation of a meteorological element (e.g., maximum temperature) that challenges the existing, official record value for that element for a given state. If such observations also challenge a national record, the involvement of the SCEC will be to render a recommendation regarding the state record only. The case will be forwarded and considered separately by the NCEC.

While many aspects of meteorological elements may be tracked, and record extremes determined, officiating and tracking many of the elements that are of extremely limited interest or use to the public would unnecessarily burden the SCEC. Therefore, the SCEC has compiled a list of elements that are to be tracked. These elements have demonstrated a strong public interest, and the historical data for these elements are readily available for a large number of observation stations across the United States.

Additionally, NCEI's state and regional partners have expressed a repeated desire to vet state records for other meteorological parameters. These records will be adjudicated, resources permitting among SCEC members, with the following guidelines:

The records are for single-station or single-point phenomena (i.e., not regional or statewide averages)
Based on resource constraints, records for specific months (e.g., the coolest temperature observed in June) are not considered by the SCEC. All-time monthly records (e.g., the coolest month observed by any station during any month) are considered within scope. However, due to resource constraints, these adjudications are uncommon.

3. Composition and convening

The SCEC will be an ad hoc committee comprised of the following five voting members:

A representative from NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Office (WFO) holding jurisdiction over the station recording a potential record. The Meteorologist in charge (MIC), or the climate focal point is preferred.
The State Climatologist (SC) for the state in which the record is being challenged. If the state does not have an SC, the SC from a neighboring state will be asked to serve.
A representative from the NWS Regional Headquarters. Preferably this will be the NWS Regional Climate Services Program Manager (CSPM) or the Regional COOP Program Manager.
A representative from the relevant Regional Climate Center (RCC). Preferably this will be the Regional Climatologist or the RCC Director.
A representative from NCEI. The NCEI National Partnership Liaison will facilitate this selection.

Additional non-voting members may be asked to participate. This is often the case where the input of a particular subject matter expert is desirable. A quorum of the committee is considered to be three of the five voting members.

The committee may be called by any member, but in general, it will be expected that either the relevant WFO or the SC for the affected state will call for the committee to convene. The committee will dissolve once a recommendation has been reached regarding a challenged record value, or when the challenge has been withdrawn. The SCEC will strive for consensus determinations. In the event that a unanimous determination cannot be reached, determinations will carry with at least three votes, and dissenting opinions will be included in its decision report. This decision report will be compiled by the NCEI representative serving on the SCEC and will be accessible on the NCEI SCEC website.

It is expected that most discussion and voting of the committee will take place via either E-mail or teleconference (see Section 4). Occasionally, it may be necessary for the committee to meet in person. If the in-person meeting is to discuss a particular state record, the meeting should occur in the state in question (as a site visit may be necessary). Such a meeting should be arranged by a member based in that state.

4. Record Recognition Process

The SCEC compiled an initial list of records listed in Table 1 for each state of the United States. These records were reviewed to determine their validity and, if found to be acceptable, were recommended to the NCEI Climate Monitoring Chief for inclusion in the statewide records data set. NCEI has reviewed and updated the statewide extremes tables for all-time maximum and minimum temperature, 24-hr precipitation and snowfall, and all-time greatest snow depth. Remaining tables of the tracked elements have been subsequently updated.

Here forward, the challenge of an SCEC officially recognized statewide record is expected to follow the following guidelines:

If the WFO or the SC thinks a statewide record may have been set, a representative from the WFO or SC office (preferably the WFO) should visit the site of the record within 2 days of notification of the record and take the following action.
- Test equipment to ensure proper working order (if applicable).
- Examine and describe exposure and take pictures.
After the site visit, the WFO representative or SC should send an E-mail to all members of the SCEC (see Section 3) informing them of a challenge to the record. Information/photos from the site visit should be attached to the E-mail or a common access location determined and shared with the SCEC members for proper review of the evidence.
At this point, the WFO should transmit a preliminary Record Event Report (RER). The RER should clearly indicate that the record is under review, and final determination will be forthcoming.
Once the WFO or SC sends the initial SCEC E-mail, they should set up a teleconference call that includes all members of the SCEC.
- The teleconference should take place within the soonest practical timeframe after the E-mail from the WFO or SC is received.
- If any member of the SCEC is unavailable, they should notify the committee of their absence. They may provide input via E-mail, but their vote would either be abstained, or cast by their alternate or other proxy acceptable to the committee.
Each SCEC member will review the validity of the proposed record value, using all tools available to them, prior to the teleconference. They should be prepared to discuss and vote on the validity of the record during the conference call. A second call may be needed if new information is brought to light in the first call.
The SCEC will vote for or against determining that the record be updated. A majority (at least three votes) will carry the vote.
The NCEI Climate Monitoring Chief will be informed of the challenge to the record, and will be given the determination of the SCEC. The chief, or their officially designated proxy, will render an official decision on the record. The decision of the NCEI Climate Monitoring Chief or proxy will be final. The decisional report will be drafted by the SCEC's NCEI representative and made available on this site.

NWS Instruction 10-1004 limits recognition of statewide climate records to those values originating from official NOAA-sanctioned weather stations. However, it has become evident that limiting the recognition of official climatological records to only official observations (e.g., NOAA weather stations) may result in legitimate meteorological observations being dismissed on non-scientific grounds. Therefore, the SCEC has taken the informal stance that a meteorological observation being considered for a statewide record may come from any legitimate meteorological observation platform, provided the value has first been vetted by either the State Climatologist or a local NWS representative. When evaluating a value that has come from a source external to NOAA's officially sanctioned weather observing network, the SCEC requires that:

The observation is meteorologically sound and climatologically representative of the climate of the region (e.g., not biased by micro-climatological, anthropogenic, geologic, or combustion factors).
The observing platform meets or exceeds instrument and siting standards set forth by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology (OFCM), and NOAA.
The instrument/sensor has operational parameters which support the observation. If an observation is beyond the operational envelope of the instrument, the instrument may be forwarded to a standards facility for testing.
The data collected by the instrument is archived indefinitely, along with any quality control and metadata information pertaining to the data, sensor, platform or network.
Public access to the data and all accompanying metadata is unrestricted (although the access may be fee-based).

5. Erroneous Records

If upon future examination, it comes to the attention of a member of an organization represented on the SCEC that an officially recognized statewide record may be in error or otherwise invalid, that member of the SCEC should send an E-mail to the committee, informing them of the questionable record, and including documentation in support of the challenge.

The challenging member should then invite all members to a teleconference, where the record will be discussed and a determination regarding validity voted upon.

If a challenge to the validity of an existing official statewide record is made by someone outside the committee structure, the challenge should be directed toward the relevant WFO or SC, who will review the challenge and, if the evidence warrants it, forward the challenge to the committee as per the steps outlined in the previous paragraph.

6. Public Visibility

NCEI, NWS, State Climatologists, and/or the American Association of State Climatologists (AASC) may wish to publish a table of state records and/or post them on the web. The table may include the officially sanctioned record values, the date on which the records were set, and the stations at which they were set. Web postings may also describe the SCEC mission, the records it tracks, the steps for reporting potential records or challenging existing records and decisional reports issued by the SCEC. This SCEC website contains all of the aforementioned information.

Please see our guidance document for additional details on information gathering for potential SCEC records.