About Us
The Indiana State Climate Office (INClimate) is the state archive of official daily and hourly weather observations recorded throughout Indiana. INClimate maintains an online archive of many recent daily and hourly observations from both manual and automated networks. Older observations are being converted to an online database as part of an ongoing national effort. INClimate was established in 1956 to document and study the climate of Indiana. Ever since, it has been catering to the needs of different users, namely individuals, businesses, and government agencies. INClimate not only assists in providing climate observations and summaries but also interprets and applies this data to solve climate related problems at hand. Primary users of Climate data belong to sectors such as agriculture, attorneys, construction, environmental monitoring, forensics, government insurance, news media, research, education and utilities.
Our History
Purdue Mesonet Station
1954
In 1954 Dr. Helmut Landsberg of the Weather Bureau Climatological Division announced in Climatological Services Memorandum No. 45 that the Section Centers of the Bureau would be discontinued. In its place would be the State Climatologist and the Area Climatologist program.
1955-56
During 1955-1956, the era of federally run state climatology programs across the country began. The Indiana State Climate Office was established in 1956 with the mandate to document and study the climate of Indiana . This mission includes responding to the requests of many individuals and user groups in businesses and government. Requests for assistance originate primarily from the agriculture, legal, construction, environmental monitoring, forensics, government, insurance, news media, research and eduction, and utility sectors.
1973
As a federally funded program, the State Climatology program was terminated effective April 16, 1973. However, the individual states were given the opportunity to take over these programs and support them with their own state funds. At this juncture, Purdue University accepted and funded the Indiana State Climate Office as an extension function. Since 1956 to present, the department of Agronomy at Purdue University, West Lafayette, has housed the Indiana State Climate Office.
2005
Over the years the Indiana State Climate Office has served the needs of Indiana with a very small staff. Today, the office is growing significantly, evolving into an active office that continues to serve as a vital resource of climate information to various sectors and industry throughout the state of Indiana .
Indiana state climatologists from inception to present:
| 1956 – 1982 | Lawrence Schaal |
| 1982 – 1987 | James Newman |
| 1988 – 2005 | Kenneth Scheeringa |
| 2005 – 2018 | Dr. Dev Niyogi (State Climatologist) Ken Scheeringa (Associate State Climatologist) |
| 2019 – present | Dr. Beth Hall |
