About
In 2006 Governor Schweitzer designated the Montana Climate Office, at the University of Montana, as the official state climate office. Our office is an independent state-designated body that provides Montanans with high-quality, timely, relevant, and scientifically based climate information and services. The MCO sits at the nexus of two of America’s great river basins, the Columbia and the Missouri, which encompass almost one-third of the land mass of the conterminous United States. No other provider of climate information has within their mission the goal of assimilating, organizing, and disseminating climate information across providers for the benefit of a large and diverse stakeholder community in Montana.
The Montana Climate Office is working to provide targeted water and climate information to the people of Montana for specific sectors of interest by either geography or resource. We strive to be a credible and expert source of information for decision makers that rely on the most current information on climate to make important policy decisions. It is also the role of the Montana Climate Office to assist stakeholders in interpreting climate information or adapting climate products to their needs. Since Montana’s interests extend outside of its administrative border, many of the Montana Climate Office products extend to other regions of interest and can be adapted for use within the Rocky Mountain West — downstream users of vital climate information!