A climate science and communication tool made here in Winnipeg and gaining recognition around the country and the world has received $200,000 from the province.

The money is for a new section of the Climate Atlas of Canada devoted to agriculture.

Dr. Ian Mauro is a co-director of the Prairie Climate Centre, based out of the University of Winnipeg, which created the Climate Atlas of Canada.

He says they're trying to communicate climate change information in compelling ways.

"Prairie Climate Centre believes that everything is a story. You know, data has its own story, a map tells a story, you know, interviews and stories with farmers and other people on the landscape is a story," he says. "...so that people can meaningfully access information and understand information about what's ultimately a pretty complex issue."

Dr. Danny Blair is another co-director. He says the Climate Atlas of Canada began as the Prairie Climate Atlas.

"Just the three prairie provinces. And as soon as we did that we realized that we need to go national," says Blair.

Mauro says once the atlas was realized people from across the country and even the world contacted them. Blair says they've had a call from Guyana.

"It's pretty gratifying," says Blair. "People around the world are looking at it and they see that we've done something that they should do, too."

Sustainable development minister Rochelle Squires says in a release the kind of information provided by the atlas supports applied decision-making for all Manitobans.

On its website, the Atlas calls itself "one of the only tools in the world that integrates interactive web design with climatology, cinema, and cartography to connect scientific data with personal experience in compelling and easy-to-use ways."

Dr. Blair is a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Winnipeg; Dr. Mauro is the principal of Richardson College for the Environment at the U of W.