Just a friendly reminder to everyone that Daylight Saving Time begins at 2:00am on Sunday, March 11. Make sure before you go to bed the night of the 10th that you turn your clock ahead by one hour to reflect the change.

The Florida Climate Center hosted several FSU administrators on February 1, including president Eric Barron. Dr. Barron is an FSU alum as well as a noted climate scientist and former director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). As a proponent of a National Climate Service, President Barron is keenly interested in the wide range of climate services provided by the Florida Climate Center and the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS). Dr. Barron, as well as Dr. Garnett Stokes (provost and executive president for Academic Cffairs), Dr. Sam Huckaba (interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences), and Dr. Lynn Dudley (chair of the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science) were given a general overview of the Climate Center and services by state climatologist David Zierden, a briefing on outreach and education efforts by assistant state climatologist Melissa Griffin, and a presentation on climate modeling activities at COAPS by Dr. Vasu Misra.

From left: Garnett Stokes, Lynn Dudley, Sam Huckaba, Vasu Misra, Melissa Griffin, Preston Leftwich, James O'Brien, Eric Barron, David Zierden, and Daniel Gilford.

Assistant state climatologist Melissa Griffin represented the Florida Climate Center at FSU Day at the Capitol on February 7. A variety of colleges and departments from FSU setup displays in the lobby and the first 3 floors of the Florida Capitol Building. Ms. Griffin talked with visitors and members of the legislature about the climate of Florida. She also highlighted the variety of climatic and oceanographic research that is being done at COAPS, including the potential for wind energy and modeling ocean currents in the Gulf of Mexico.

To listen audio coverage of the event, including an interview with Ms. Griffin, click here.

Daniel Gilford simulates a warm front.

Assistant state climatologist Melissa Griffin wowed visitors with demonstrations of cold fronts, warm fronts, and more at the annual National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Open House in Tallahassee on February 18. Over 5,000 people attended the event at this world-class research lab located just across the street from the Climate Center. Ms. Griffin, along with Meredith Field and Daniel Gilford from COAPS, showed visitors how density differences affect the weather, talked about the CoCoRaHS program, discussed severe storms and storm surge modeling, and quizzed attendees about Florida's climate.

State climatologist David Zierden attended the Public Interest Environment Conference on February 24, which was hosted by the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Mr. Zierden served as a panelist in the "Changing Climate" session, where he presented information on climate change and its impacts on the state of Florida. The discussion centered on how a changing climate could affect laws and policies concerning wetland and other ecosystem protection, water use and permitting, and coastal communities.

Work has been completed on a new Florida Climate Center website at http://climatecenter.fsu.edu. We will be adding redirects from the old site (http://coaps.fsu.edu/climate_center) to the new site this month, so please update your bookmarks! The new site includes a new interactive data visualization tool, which allows users to examine data from approximately 100 long-term stations across the state, as well as a download tool for temperature and precipitation data.