A. The Climate Office of the State of Oklahoma located at Norman, Oklahoma, shall be under the direction and supervision of the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma and shall be known as the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. The Oklahoma Climatological Survey is hereby re-created, to continue until July 1, 2020, in accordance with the provisions of the Oklahoma Sunset Law.

B. The director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey shall be appointed by the Board and shall either serve as the state climatologist or appoint another current employee of the Survey to serve as state climatologist. The salary of the director shall be determined by the Board.

C. The Oklahoma Climatological Survey shall have for its object and duties the following:

1. To acquire, archive, process and disseminate, in the most cost-effective way possible, all climate and weather information which is or could be of value to policy and decision makers in the state;

2. To act as the representative of the state in all climatological and meteorological matters both within and outside the state when requested to do so by the legislative or executive branches of the state government;

3. To prepare, publish and disseminate periodic regular climate summaries for those individuals, agencies and organizations whose activities are related to the welfare of the state and are affected by climate and weather;

4. To conduct and report on studies of climate and weather phenomena of significant socioeconomic importance to the state;

5. To evaluate the significance of natural and man-made, deliberate and inadvertent changes or modifications in important features of the climate and weather affecting the state, and to report this information to those agencies and organizations in the state who are likely to be affected by such changes or modifications; and

6. To maintain and operate the Oklahoma Mesonetwork, a statewide environmental monitoring network which is overseen by the Mesonet Steering Committee, comprised of representatives of the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University according to its Memorandum of Agreement. The director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey shall be accountable for executing the policies of the Mesonet Steering Committee.

D. The director is authorized to certify copies as being authentic reproductions of weather records held in the state.

E. The director of the Oklahoma Climatological Survey shall present a report each year to the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma showing the progress, condition and all other information which the Board may deem necessary.

Added by Laws 1982, c. 63, § 1, operative Oct. 1, 1982. Amended by Laws 1988, c. 13, § 1; Laws 1994, c. 14, § 1; Laws 2000, c. 18, § 1; Laws 2003, c. 208, § 1, emerg. eff. May 12, 2003; Laws 2006, c. 51, § 1; Laws 2012, c. 100, § 1; Laws 2014, c. 57, § 1.