WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration on Monday proposed a new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Service, reorganizing the agency so it can provide Americans with predictions on how global warming will affect everything from drought to sea levels.

The initiative, modeled loosely on the 140-year-old National Weather Service, will provide forecasts to farmers, regional water managers and business operators affected by changing climate conditions. But it comes at a time when climate skeptics have become increasingly effective in attacking the credibility of global warming forecasts.

NOAA, along with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, ranks as one of the federal government's key agencies for monitoring the climate and conducting climate research.

"We currently respond to millions of annual requests for climate information, and we expect those requests to grow exponentially," NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in an interview, adding that in light of recent scientific advances, "the models will continue to improve, and we will be able to provide more and more information."

The move does not come with a designated boost in funding, but it will bring NOAA's climate research arm together with its more consumer-oriented services so they can operate, in Ms. Lubchenco's words, "cheek by jowl."

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in an interview that the service will be able to provide advice on everything from where ski operators might want to refocus their activities in light of changing snowfall patterns to what farm crops will need increased irrigation.

In the same way that businesses such as the Weather Channel and AccuWeather.com have taken advantage of the National Weather Service's predictions, Mr. Locke said, "You'll see much of the private sector will want to build on this one-stop shop of climate services."

The agency launched a new web portal Monday at www.climate.gov to provide a single entry point for access to NOAA's climate information, data, products and services.

To formally launch the reorganization, Mr. Locke said, the House and Senate appropriations committees with jurisdiction over NOAA will need to agree on the move, planned for Oct. 1.

Even without the reorganization, NOAA has been providing more detailed climate-related forecasts recently. The National Integrated Drought Information System, which became law in December 2006, provides drought forecasts and impacts for the West and Southwest for at least a season and as much as a year. Climate models suggest that both these regions will experience increasing dryness over the next 20 to 40 years, and Ms. Lubchenco said the agency will expand this system to cover the Southeast as well.

Thomas Karl, director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., will be the new service's transitional director.

Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.