The periodic cooling of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean helps bring rain to Alaska and blizzards to Colorado.

Atmosphere and society intertwined in new ways during the 1980s, as a host of threats from acid rain to microbursts came into focus. With extensive ties to universities and expertise in both weather and climate, NCAR and UCAR were natural venues for addressing these issues.

The 1970s brought the United States a string of fierce winters and a spate of speculation on a cooling climate. Many atmospheric scientists had a different worry: they knew that carbon dioxide in the air had been increasing for decades and that global temperatures should rise before long.

When scientists around the world began planning the most ambitious weather observing study in history, NCAR was a natural partner.

Computer models of global climate became indispensable tools in the last decades of the 20th century as society began to grapple with the impact of human-produced greenhouse gases.