The Minnesota State Climatology Office (SCO) is funded by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources - Division of Ecological and Water Resources. The State Climatologist is Greg Spoden and the Assistant State Climatologist is Peter Boulay. This entity concentrates on the acquisition and archival of all National Weather Service daily values of temperature and precipitation and of all other daily precipitation data collected in Minnesota. Its clientele typically include the general public via serial releases of precipitation and snow depth maps, and other users of climatic data, especially those working in natural resources and hydrology.
 
"The Minnesota State Climatology Office exists to manage, analyze, and disseminate climate information, to develop and implement or improve technical means for such activities and to coordinate the activities of data producers or suppliers to ensure a contiguous and continuous supply of high quality climate data for sthe State of Minnesota and its citizens in order that those whose activities or well being are affected by the climate of Minnesota may be advised of those climatic effects."
 
The Minnesota State Climatology Office maintains a number of data sets to accomplish the goals of the office. Many varied products are produced from that information. Some products, such as weekly maps of either snow depth or precipitation, utilize very recent information. Other summary type products may be the result of months or years of work and may represent 100 or more years of data collection. Some of those data bases and products are described here.
 
Weekly Precipitation Maps: This product depicts the total precipitation of the previous 7 days. A map showing the departure from normal since April 1 depicts the relative dryness/wetness of the warm season.

Weekly Snow Depth Maps: This map is a simple compilation of observed depths around the state for the stated date. A ranking of the current depth relative to past years gives a measure of the rarity of the current condition.

Miscellaneous 'current' summaries: Flash floods and other extreme conditions require special products which depict geographical extent and some measure of absolute intensity or rarity. Recently, 'A Sixteen Year Summary of Flash Floods' was released to depict high resolution analyses of these extreme weather features.

Long term summaries of temperature and precipitation are available in map and tabular formats. The 'Climate of Minnesota' series of technical publications provides an easily used distribution method for these products.

Long term electronic data sets of daily and monthly temperature and precipitation data are maintained.

National Weather Service data for over 100 years
150+ stations with over 40 years record
monthly temperature and precipitation data sets in easily distributable and useable personal computer format
High spatial resolution daily precipitation data sets are acquired, digitized, and distributed back to the generators. Over one thousand stations across Minnesota observe during the warm months.
Special data sets are acquired for applications such as lake level and soil moisture modeling.