Attachment J.2 - NRWRC Task Order 1 Performance Work Statement (PWS).pdf

Northeast Regional Weather Records Center

Task Order 1 Performance Work Statement (PWS)

1. Introduction and Background:

The Regional Climate Center (RCC) Program was formed in 1983 in response to the National Climate Program Act of 1978, which recognized the need for accurate, localized climate information to support government decision-makers and other stakeholders

Since 1990, NCEI’s Regional Climate Services (RCS) program has traditionally supported Regional Weather Records Centers (RWRCs) established at Public Universities within six geographic regions. The RWRCs have produced and delivered environmental data, products, information, and services – hereafter collectively termed “products and services” – and captured user needs.

Since inception, the Regional Centers have been at the cutting edge of the rapidly expanding field of environmental information and service delivery. Its work is grounded in a combination of infrastructure, outreach, applied research, and operational services. Other regional service providers have been established over the years, with a primary focus on adaptation; however, the RWRC Program is the only existing program that covers such a significant breadth of long-term weather records services for all 50 states and U.S. Territories.

As operational long-term weather service providers, the RWRCs fill three main niches:

● Delivery of weather records, data, and information to assist regions as they work to mitigate extreme weather impacts and ensure continued prosperity.

● Provision and development of sector-specific and value-added data products and services.

● Seamless integration of non-NOAA weather data with traditional NOAA data sources.

RWRCs support NCEI’s effort to understand user needs for environmental information, and to translate those needs into requirements for the development of future products and services.

This support complements the work of NCEI’s Information Services Branch and its Regional Climate Services Directors (RCSD), with the RCSDs primarily assessing, prioritizing, and translating priority constituent needs into actionable product requirements, and the RWRCs primarily providing operational capacity to deliver products and services, as well as addressing engagement and needs gathering with non-prioritized constituents. NCEI Information Services ensures RWRC activities align with NCEI strategic direction.

2. Period of Performance:

BP: 9/17/26-4/16/27

OP1: 4/17/27-6/30/27

OP2: 7/1/27-6/30/28

OP3: 7/1/28-6/30/29

OP4: 7/1/29-6/30/30

OP5: 7/1/30-6/30/31

OP6: 7/1/31-9/16/31

3. Geographic Scope:

The Northeast Regional Weather Records Center (NRWRC) region is defined as follows:

● Northeast Region: ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD, WV, DC

4. Requirements

The NRWRC will provide products and services to address regional long-term weather records needs and issues in the context of NCEI’s broader environmental information responsibilities.

This Task Order’s scope, commonly referred to as the “Core Task Order,” is executed as Base Services (direct support to NCEI), Regional Services (direct support to areas/states within the defined region) and National Capability Services (uniquely support the Nations RCS Program).

4.1 Base Services Requirements

1. Synthesize Regional Weather Records, Data and Information

a. The NRWRC shall provide monthly environmental monitoring reports for public release. The reports shall, in coordination with NCEI’s monitoring and assessment group:

i. Provide a regional overview of temperature, precipitation, and drought statistics and highlights.

ii. Provide a regional overview of weather impacts within the region, including elements such as crop conditions, reservoir levels, and energy demand.

iii. Provide historical context on weather events and episodes that are defined conceptually and are not directly measured by instruments and observatories, such as heat and cold waves, drought, severe weather events, and water shortages.

b. At least quarterly, the NRWRC shall compile and synthesize seasonal-scale weather-related impact and outlook information for the region, appropriate for non-technical audiences, and deliver a summary consistent with NCEI style and format guidelines and in consultation with the designated NCEI representatives.

i. Reports shall be done for at least the current region and sub-regions which include:

1. Northeast RWRC (NRWRC)

○ Northeast

○ Gulf of Maine

ii. For reports led voluntarily by other groups, the NRWRC may support the generation of the report but the NRWRC is ultimately responsible for the report being delivered.

c. The NRWRC shall produce in coordination with NCEI’s monitoring and assessment group annual “State of the Region” environmental monitoring summaries, modeled on NCEI’s annual National Overview and appropriate for non-technical audiences, in consultation with the relevant RCSD(s).

d. The NRWRC shall provide or contribute to NCEI monitoring of sub-monthly environmental events of interest (ex: story maps of hurricanes, extreme heat outbreaks, or extreme storm events).

2. Support Adjudication of Possible New Weather Records Should a record meteorological event occur, NRWRC shall support the assessment as to the legitimacy of extraordinary weather observations or other data identified as possible new records for jurisdiction within the region.

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/scec/.

3. Maintain and Deliver Inventory Information

The NRWRC shall maintain an inventory of its research and sustained products and services, including all projects developed under previous additional Task Orders, their maturity assessed through a NCEI-specified framework (e.g. NCEI Maturity Matrix or NOAA Readiness level), their documentation states, and their compliance with NCEI-approved formats and metadata schema. Products and services included in the NESDIS integrated products list will also require submission of information and metadata about the product necessary to be included in the official inventory.

4. Track User Inquiries, Access, Downloads and Use of RWRC Resources

a. The NRWRC shall document and respond to customer inquiries of a routine (i.e., phone, fax, e-mail), regional nature within one business day from the time of receipt.

b. The NRWRC shall input monthly updates of summarized user needs into an NCEI requirements collection database tool. The updates shall align with NCEI tools needs and be of sufficient granularity to inform decisions on the modification or sustainment of existing or development of new products and services.

c. The NRWRC shall track the number of NRWRC data, product, and information downloads and service requests, including web analytics, and report summary information, including aggregated user domain information, for each fiscal year quarter.

d. The NRWRC shall implement a process for tracking the further distribution, use, and value of its products and services (e.g., a user’s subsequent data distribution or translation following a download from the NRWRC), and provide summary information for each fiscal year quarter.

e. The NRWRC shall deliver data and information via the Internet. The web interface shall allow consistent access and messaging to users, allowing them to find the same or similar information across regions in the same or similar ways, shall acknowledge the relationship between NOAA and the NRWRC, and shall be designed collaboratively across RWRCs, in consultation with NCEI.

4.2 Regional Services Requirements

1. Regional Themes The NRWRC shall meet all Regional Theme Requirements for the themes identified for its region as specified below.

a. The NRWRC shall meet its theme requirements:

i. Within its region

ii. Outside its region, in collaboration with other RWRCs. This requirement defines a functional, rather than strictly geographic, leadership capability that can be projected, shared, or applied in other regions as needs dictate.

b. The NRWRC shall propose annual changes to its themes, for consideration by NCEI, as regional needs and priorities vary over time. Regional themes shall be aligned with existing NCEI Data Product Areas as well as NESDIS Products and Product Areas.

i. The NRWRC shall provide products and services to support relevant parts of the private and public sectors, and provide associated stewardship, documentation and consultation services to ensure product integrity and customer ease-of-use. The NRWRC shall assess user needs for NOAA-relevant environmental products and services and will develop and deliver a prioritized list of user needs that are unmet by other providers.

ii. The NRWRC shall convene at least one regional constituent workshop focused on RWRC and NCEI products, user applications, and needs.

Additionally, the NRWRC shall engage regional constituents at least five times. This can be through another RWRC planned workshop or by attending workshops hosted by regional users, user groups, or trade organizations. Workshops shall be coordinated with NCEI Information Services and may leverage or be collaborative with the State Climatologists.

The NRWRC shall develop and deliver summary workshop report(s) for activities they host or trip reports, if engagement is not hosted by them.

The reports should include user needs and recommendations on new or improvements to products and any recommendations on how to engage stakeholders more effectively. Targets for workshops and engagements should complement NCEI's prioritized user and focus on regional communities, other than NCEI prioritized constituents, who are impacted by weather and extremes where NRWRC and NCEI information and data would make an impact.

iii. The NRWRC shall identify and exercise opportunities to grow awareness and use of, in priority order, NCEI, NESDIS, and NOAA environmental data and information among regional users and communities.

Regional Themes (Not in priority order) -

Theme 1: Water Resources and Critical Infrastructure Theme 2: Resiliency to Extreme Events

2. Transition RWRC Developments to NCEI Operational State

The NRWRC shall, with guidance, prioritization, and collaboration of NCEI, recommend and support the transition of select mature NRWRC products, tools and services to NCEI sustainment states following NCEI transition guidance and processes. The NRWRC shall ensure that resources and capabilities submitted for transition comply with NCEI’s standards and policies. Developments, including those dealing with value-added access, will be delivered to appropriate NCEI-directed repositories.

3. Additional Regional Service Requirement The NRWRC shall provide products and services for additional government-designated sectors or weather-related issues in the region. These activities may be conducted in collaboration with other RWRCs who may already be providing such products and services in support of their Regional Themes. Products should support administration priorities and existing NCEI Data Product Areas.

4.3. National Capabilities to Support Regional Needs

1. Threaded Station Data

a. The NRWRC shall maintain a database of “threaded” station time series for at least 402 locations across the United States for the purpose of calculating extremes of temperature and precipitation. The NRWRC shall provide web-based access to the database.

b. The NRWRC shall acknowledge requests for station thread modifications and corrections in writing to NCEI and NWS within three (3) business days of request.

Implement modifications and corrections on an annual basis.

c. The NRWRC shall provide NCEI and NWS with an annual update of the “threaded” database (and station metadata) by March 1 of each year of the contract.

2. Value Added Data and Information Access Support The NRWRC shall provide user-friendly, web-based access to NCEI 2001 - 2030 Climate Normals data and information, complementing NCEI Enterprise Data Access and developed to meet user requirements. This should include at a minimum, the suite of Climate Normals in situ and gridded data. This access shall leverage best practices learned with NOAA and NCEI Portal development efforts and should include the ability to visualize information such as graphing data and developing user-defined maps from in situ, gridded, and remotely-sensed information at all time-scales. The computer code developed to provide access shall be compatible with NCEI’s Cloud initiatives (e.g., NOAA Open Data Dissemination (NODD) Program, NESDIS Common Cloud Framework (NCCF)) and be delivered to NCEI through its Git Hub or other NCEI-approved repository.

Deliverables Frequency Received By Updates and Corrections to Threaded Database

Annually – No later than March 1

NCEI Operations

Value Added/Information Access (Website publicly available ready to host official 2001-2030 Normals data upon release). Code delivered via approved method.

April 1, 2031 PM, COR

5. Performance Reporting and Transition Planning

Reports: Per the schedule in Table B, the NRWRC shall furnish a detailed performance report.

This report shall describe customer inquiries, partner engagement, products and services, and technical support activities under this Task Order. The format of the report and performance measures contained in the report will be developed by the RCS Program Manager in coordination with the RCSDs and all RWRCs following the award of the contract. Performance measures may include the nature, source and amount of customer support, type and frequency of regional stakeholder activities, and performance of critical systems and infrastructure (i.e., downtime). They will be used to describe program activities and contractor performance, support NCEI budget planning and execution activities, and may also be reported to the Office of Management and Budget or to Congress. The NRWRC shall provide timely information for the development and reporting of performance measures when appropriate. The reports shall include a milestone plan, documenting the timeline for actions to be taken for each task throughout the period of performance and updated per Table B. All deliverables and final reports shall be submitted to the designated contact by the end of the period of performance or by other mutually agreed upon dates developed during the coordination process across partners. No deliverable will be due later than the task end date. In addition to the performance reports, the RCS Program Manager may contact RCSDs, other NCEI program directors, and key partners for information to assist in evaluating contractor performance.

Transition: In order to ensure the continuity of regional long-term weather services and operational systems following the expiration of this contract, the NRWRC shall submit transition plans within 3 months of the expiration of the period of performance. These plans shall describe the steps to be taken in advance of the expiration of the contract to ensure portability of contractor-development software and systems. The NRWRC shall provide NCEI with documentation of systems and system dependencies, processes, execution codes, transfer software and software dependencies, and data products derived from NCEI funds. In addition, they shall name a point of contact to work with NCEI in the event of a transition to new contractors upon expiration of the contract. This point of contact shall notify the PM of stakeholder outreach and partner engagement activities that should continue past the expiration of the contract. All transition planning, support and documentation must be completed by the expiration of the contract, without a degradation of service.

6. Schedule of Deliverables

The table below summarizes the contractual deliverables, the frequencies of delivery, and the recipients of the deliverables for the Base and Regional Services Requirements. All deliverables are to be delivered to a common government directory with an email notification to the recipient listed below. Templates and file naming conventions will be provided by NCEI.

TABLE A

Deliverables Frequency/Due Date Received By

Environmental Monitoring Reports

Monthly and Annually - No later than the 5th business day of the following month and calendar year

NCEI Climate Monitoring Team, Program Manager (PM), Contracting Officer’s Representative COR

Performance Reports See Table B PM, COR, appropriate Regional Climate Services Director (RCSD)

Weather-related Impact and Outlook Summaries

Quarterly – No later than Tuesday following the 3rd Thursday of March, June, September and December

PM, COR, appropriate

RCSD

Summary of User Requests Monthly through NCEI requirements tool – No later than

NCEI requirements tool the 8th business day of the following month

Inventory of products and services

Include in Performance Reports PM, COR, appropriate

RCSD

Prioritized List of User Needs Include in Performance Reports PM, COR, appropriate

RCSD

Workshops and Regional Engagements

Annually – No later than June 30th

Workshop and Regional Engagement Reports

Within 4 weeks of workshop or engagement completion and no later than June 30th

PM, COR, appropriate

RCSD

TABLE B

Period Performance Reports Date Range FY / Quarter Report

Due Date

Base Period

9/17/26-4/16/27 09/17/26 – 12/31/26 FY27 / Q1 01/08/27

01/01/27 – 04/16/27 FY27 / Q3 04/16/27

Option Period 1

4/17/27-6/30/27 04/17/27 – 06/30/27 FY27 / Q3 06/30/27

Option Period 2

7/1/27-6/30/28 07/01/27 – 09/30/27 FY27 / Q4 10/08/27

10/01/27 – 12/31/27 FY28 / Q1 01/08/28

01/01/28 – 03/31/28 FY28 / Q2 04/08/28

04/01/28 – 06/30/28 FY28 / Q3 06/30/28

Option Period 3

7/1/28-6/30/29 07/01/28 – 09/30/28 FY28 / Q4 10/08/28

10/01/28 – 12/31/28 FY29 / Q1 01/08/29

01/01/29 – 03/31/29 FY29 / Q2 04/08/29

04/01/29 – 06/30/29 FY29 / Q3 06/30/29

Option Period 4

7/1/29-6/30/30 07/01/29 – 09/30/29 FY29 / Q4 10/08/29

10/01/29 – 12/31/29 FY30 / Q1 01/08/30

01/01/30 – 03/31/30 FY30 / Q2 04/08/30

04/01/30 – 06/30/30 FY30 / Q3 06/30/30

Option Period 5

7/1/30-6/30/31 07/01/30 – 09/30/30 FY30 / Q4 10/08/30

10/01/30 – 12/31/30 FY31 / Q1 01/08/31

01/01/31 – 03/31/31 FY31 / Q2 04/08/31

04/01/31 – 06/30/31 FY31 / Q3 06/30/31

Option Period 6

7/1/31-9/16/31 07/01/31 – 09/16/31 FY31 / Q4 09/16/31

7. Government Acceptance Period

The COR will coordinate with appropriate staff to review deliverables prior to acceptance and provide the Contractor with an e-mail that provides documented reasons for non-acceptance.

The Government will have the right to reject or require correction of any deficiencies found in the deliverables that are contrary to the information contained in the contract. In the event of a rejected deliverable, the Contractor will be notified in writing of the specific reasons for rejection. The Contractor may have an opportunity to correct the rejected deliverable and return it per delivery instructions.

The Contractor shall be responsible for timely delivery to Government personnel in the agreed upon review chain, at each stage of the review. The Contractor shall work with personnel reviewing the deliverables to assure that the established schedule is maintained.

8. Invoicing

Invoices must be received via IPP within one week of the required Performance Report submission date detailed in Table B above.

9. Contracting Officer’s Representative

The Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) will be appointed by memo.