Four out of the six regional climate centers in the United States shut down Thursday due to a lapse of federal funding.
That includes the centers in the Midwest, High Plains, and South covering 21 states, including Missouri.
They’re responsible for collecting climate information for drought monitoring, as well as sharing online weather tracking tools that many in the agriculture and construction industries depend on.
Director John Nielson-Gammon of the Southern region — which includes Texas and Oklahoma — says businesses and customers might start to see financial impacts trickle down without these resources.
“Ultimately it ends up affecting people's checkbooks with higher prices for goods and services," Nielsen-Gammon says.
Nielsen-Gammon says additional contract reviews in Washington D.C. led to the loss of funding, but he’s hopeful they’ll be eventually approved.
