Former NOAA employees built Climate.us to preserve climate data and resources

What is Climate.us and why did former NOAA staff build it?

Climate.us is a rebuild of the US government's Climate.gov site, which was shut down in 2025 and now redirects to a NOAA page. It launched in the week of 26 June 2026, led by former Climate.gov programme director Rebecca Lindsey and two other ex-NOAA staff who were laid off in the 2025 DOGE cutbacks.

They began rebuilding in August 2025. The site carries Climate.gov's 15-year archive of news, expert blogs, indicator reports, maps and classroom materials, plus the climate dashboard with more than a dozen key graphs. About $280,000 was crowdsourced for the technical build, and about 80 volunteer scientists fact-check the content.

Is the original climate data actually gone?

No. Most of the underlying data is still on government servers, but it is hard to find. What disappeared was the usable layer: the explanations, maps and graphs that made the data readable. That distinction matters, because losing access in practice can be as damaging as losing the data itself.

Climate.gov had nearly 1 million visitors a month in 2021. That is a lot of people depending on one public website. A single decision removed it from view, and a small team of volunteers and donors had to rebuild it.

Why should a UK small business care about a US climate website?

Because it shows how quickly a free resource you rely on can vanish or become unusable, and the same thing can happen to the platforms your business runs on. Climate.us survived because people chose to rebuild it. Your business will not get that rescue.

It is also a reminder that continuity is funded. Climate.us has a one-time anonymous grant that keeps it running until at least February 2027. Even a successful rescue has an expiry date to plan around.

How exposed are UK small businesses to flooding and climate risk?

More than most owners assume. Bank of England research found about 10% of UK business premises are on a floodplain. Flooding raises a small firm's risk of closure by 32% in the flood year, and by 92% if it floods repeatedly within three years.

The financial damage lingers too. The same research found SME current account balances are about 9% lower one year after a flood, and borrowing balances about 12% lower. Recovery is slow, which is why your records and systems must survive the event.

What should I do this month to protect my business?

Start by checking your flood risk, then make sure nothing critical lives in one place. Do these in order:

1. Check your postcode against the Environment Agency flood maps (or the Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish equivalents), for your premises and your suppliers.
2. Back up customer data to a second location you control, such as a cloud copy plus an export you hold yourself. Test a restore.
3. Download and save any guidance, reports or datasets you rely on, rather than bookmarking them. Note the date and source.
4. Divert your phone and bookings so customers can still reach you if the premises are closed.
5. Review your insurance for business interruption cover, and check what it needs from you as evidence.

Is it risky to depend on platforms like Facebook, Fresha or Linktree?

Yes. On rented platforms you do not own the customer, the data or the terms, and they can change or disappear overnight. Climate.gov is a public-sector example of the same pattern: a presence people relied on, removed by someone else's decision.

We see the cost regularly. A nail salon was paying Fresha about £1,800 a month in commission. Moving to its own booking system at £35 a month saved roughly £21,000 a year, and the salon now holds its own customer list.

What is Braynex Services' view?

At Braynex Services, our view is that the lesson here is not about climate politics. It is about ownership. If a resource, a customer list or a booking page matters to your income, a copy of it should sit somewhere you control.

That means a real website, your own bookings and your own data. It also helps you be found. AI assistants and Google increasingly recommend businesses with clear, well-structured sites, which a Facebook page rarely provides. A baker with 800 Facebook followers reached 120 monthly organic visitors within six weeks of launching a real website.

Where do I start?

Book a free audit at braynexservices.com. Braynex Services will review where your customer data, bookings and online presence currently live, show you what you are renting rather than owning, and give you a short, practical list of fixes in order of priority.