High Plains Regional Climate Center has gone dark

The High Plains Regional Climate Center’s website went offline Thursday morning after its funding lapsed at midnight.

Gannon Rush, a climatologist with the center, said the current funding is “still needing governmental approval.”

The HPRCC, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, offers weather and climate condition monitoring, services and data collection for Nebraska and five other states in the region. It works out of an office on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s East Campus.

Within the state, the center operates the Automated Weather Data Network, which farmers can use to decide whether crops need to be irrigated. HPRCC’s Growing Degree Day Tools offer data that is often used by farmers to know what actions they should take based on where in the growing process their crops are.

“Particularly in the spring and summer, if either of these products are down, I hear about it pretty quickly,” Rush said in an email.

HPRCC’s climate data is used by multiple agencies when it comes to monitoring drought conditions.

“I primarily use it for helping try to better assess drought conditions around the state,” said Eric Hunt, an Assistant Extension Educator of agriculture and meteorology with the state climate office. “So if those data are not available, then you know, there's going to be a risk of that the Drought Monitor may be even less accurate than they even think it is currently.”

Hunt said that it’s not a total loss of data, rather organizations and individuals who rely on the tools and data will have to find work arounds and detours.

“It’s just like blocking off a couple of major roads,” Hunt said. “You could still get to your destination most likely, but you're going to have to probably take a much different path than you wanted to get there. It's going to take you longer.”

The National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln also makes heavy use of the HPRCC’s data.

"With the drought ongoing in Nebraska…they would have to find other sources of data to make their weekly assessments,” Rush said.

It’s not clear why the center’s funding has been held up, but National Public Radio reported last week that the Trump Administration has proposed cutting the NOAA’s budget by up to 25% for 2026