Former NOAA Scientists Launch Independent 'Climate.us' After Administration Shuts Down Official Climate.gov Website

On Wednesday, a coalition of more than 40 former federal scientists and data archivists launched 'Climate.us,' an independent web portal designed to replace the recently decommissioned official government website, Climate.gov. The launch comes just days after the current administration abruptly took the official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) portal offline, redirecting visitors to a generic Department of Commerce landing page.[4]

The new independent site hosts approximately 150 terabytes of mirrored federal data, including historical temperature records, sea-level rise projections, and extreme weather tracking tools. Organizers state that the data was legally scraped and archived over the past several months in anticipation of potential federal policy shifts regarding environmental research and public-facing science communication.[2]

The administration has defended the shutdown of Climate.gov as a necessary cost-saving measure and a step toward depoliticizing federal science agencies. Officials argue that the site, which cost an estimated $12 million annually to maintain, heavily promoted a specific environmental agenda rather than serving as a neutral data repository for the American public.[1][3]

Proponents of the shutdown argue that raw meteorological data remains available through other backend federal databases, and that the highly visual, public-facing Climate.gov was an unnecessary expenditure. They maintain that streamlining agency communications ensures taxpayer dollars are focused on core forecasting, emergency weather alerts, and immediate public safety rather than broad, long-term climate modeling.[1]

The scientists behind Climate.us counter that the official portal was an essential tool not just for academic researchers, but for local governments, farmers, and infrastructure planners who rely on accessible, visualized data to make long-term economic decisions. They argue that burying raw data in obscure federal servers effectively hides it from the general public and small businesses that lack the technical expertise to process raw meteorological code.

The effort to build Climate.us relied heavily on a network of open-source technologists and digital archivists. Utilizing decentralized storage networks, these groups worked around the clock to ensure that interactive tools, such as the widely used Climate Explorer, remained functional and free to access outside the federal firewall, creating a resilient backup of decades of taxpayer-funded research.

Private sector analysts note that the shift of federal data to an independent platform could have downstream effects on industries that rely on climate risk assessments, including the insurance and real estate markets. While the data remains available for now, questions linger about the long-term funding, security, and maintenance of an independent site compared to a federally backed institution with a dedicated congressional budget.[3]

Moving forward, the Climate.us team is seeking non-profit status and soliciting grants to sustain the platform's massive server costs. Meanwhile, congressional oversight committees have signaled their intent to hold hearings on the administration's authority to unilaterally decommission public-facing scientific databases without legislative approval, setting the stage for a broader battle over the control of federal information.[2][4]