"Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get." NOAA’s Climate Mission Goal is to “understand climate variability and change to enhance society’s ability to plan and respond.” Expected outcomes include:

• A predictive understanding of the global climate system on time scales of weeks to decades with quantified uncertainties sufficient for making informed and reasoned decisions; and
• Climate-sensitive sectors and a climate-literate public effectively incorporating NOAA’s climate products into their plans and decisions.