Outlet profile

North Carolina State Climate Office

Nonpartisan scientific/technical

Owned byA public office housed within North Carolina State University's Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, operating as part of the University of North Carolina system

FundingState appropriations through NC State University, combined with external grants — about $1.7 million from a mix of North Carolina state agencies, federal agencies, and nongovernmental organizations

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

The Office of the State Climatologist for North Carolina was established in 1976 within the University of North Carolina system, initially housed at UNC-Chapel Hill's Department of Geography under founding State Climatologist Peter Robinson. In 1980, a memorandum of agreement moved the office to North Carolina State University's Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences, where it remains today. The office now employs about 10 full-time staff and six student workers, operating a statewide weather-observing network (ECONet) and producing climate data, drought monitoring, and applied research used by state agencies, businesses, and the public. Leadership has passed through several state climatologists over the decades; Kathie Dello currently holds the role. Because it is a scientific service office rather than a publisher of opinion or political news, it has not been the subject of major partisan editorial controversies, though its climate-change-related findings occasionally draw pushback from climate-change skeptics. Its funding mix of state appropriations and external grants from both government and nongovernmental sources shapes it as a public-interest scientific resource rather than an advocacy or media organization.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-09-25; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

← Back to track record