The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit is a website (toolkit.climate.gov) developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other Federal agencies to enable decision-makers to take action to boost their climate resilience using data-driven tools, information, and subject-matter expertise to make smarter decisions. The Toolkit offers information from across the federal government in one easy-to-use location so that Americans are better able to understand the climate-related risks and opportunities impacting their communities and take steps to improve their resilience.  

NOAA and partners document surge in Great Lakes water levels

Scientists at the Army Corps of Engineers, Environment Canada, and NOAA recently documented a record-setting surge in water levels on Lakes Superior and Michigan-Huron that began in January 2013, and has continued through November 2014. The United States and Canadian federal agencies expect water levels to stay near or above average on all of the Great Lakes over the next six months.  At no other point in recorded history have water levels risen as much on Lake Superior and Michigan-Huron over the same two-year period. Since September 2014, all of the Great Lakes have been above their seasonal averages for the first time since the late 1990's.

NASA in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is offering more than $35,000 in prizes to citizen scientists for ideas that make use of climate data to address vulnerabilities faced by the United States in coping with climate change. The Climate Resilience Data Challenge, conducted through the NASA Tournament Lab, a partnership with Harvard University hosted on Appirio/Topcoder, kicks off Monday, Dec. 15 and runs through March 2015.

Sea level rise threatening Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Rising seas and pounding waves driven by climate change are chipping away at the coast near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, threatening launch pads and future operations, scientists said on Friday.

Del. River estuary partners renew collaborative management agreement

America's Beloved Outer Banks Could Be Devastated In The Next Century

The Outer Banks is a paradise for residents and tourists alike. The string of islands, laid end to end just off the coast of North Carolina and a portion of Virginia, are beloved for their stunning beaches, picturesque towns, and pleasant weather. Many resident families have been there for generations, and visitors often return season after season to take advantage of the sun and the scenery.

Study Shows That 270,000 Tons Of Plastic Float In The Ocean 

A new study estimates nearly 270,000 tons of plastic is floating in the world's oceans. That's enough to fill more than 38,500 garbage trucks. The plastic is broken up into more than 5 trillion pieces, said the study published Wednesday in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. The paper is the latest in a nascent field where scientists are trying to better understand how much of the synthetic material is entering the oceans and how it's affecting fish, seabirds and the larger marine ecosystem.

That Sinking Feeling: Rising Sea Level Isn't Cities' Only Water Worry

Some of the world's expanding coastal cities face a two-pronged threat involving water: Sticking giant straws into the ground to suck up freshwater can cause the ground below to sink at the same time that sea levels are rising. That interplay between subsiding land and rising seas highlights an underappreciated risk in global climate change, according to scientists. It's not known how many people live on coastal lands that are sinking due to excessive groundwater pumping, but about 150 million live within 3.3 feet of today's high-tide mark. And the worst-case scenario for sea level rise by the end of this century is nearly six feet, according to a recent study. "The thing about the subsidence is that it is localized, but where it happens it is bad," Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist and groundwater expert affiliated with the University of California, Irvine, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told NBC News. "It can be a foot or more a year, which is a lot."

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