[1]Agriculture is a multi-billion dollar industry in North Carolina, and its success often depends on the weather and climate. Since its inception, the SCO has had agricultural services as a critical component of its efforts. The State Climate Office focuses on assisting the agriculture industry with information and scientific advances. Agricultural Research Stations host many of the NC ECONet stations, and use the real-time and historical data from these stations for their research.

Current efforts are focusing on the estimation and impacts of soil temperature and soil moisture on local weather and environmental conditions.

Recent research has documented that the warm season was significantly longer in the 1990s as compared to the previous 4 decades. As part of a study to investigate the changes of the first and last freezes, analysis showed that over the last 10 years, the number of days between the last spring freeze and first fall freeze has increased significantly as compared with the pervious 40 years.

The SCO is actively working with the NC Agricultural Research Service to improve our understanding of the relationships between weather and climate and the needs of agricultural industries.

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