NCEP delivers national and global weather, water, climate and space weather guidance, forecasts, warnings and analyses to its Partners and External User Communities. The National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), an arm of the NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS), is comprised of nine distinct Centers, and the Office of the Director, which provide a wide variety of national and international weather guidance products to National Weather Service field offices, government agencies, emergency managers, private sector meteorologists, and meteorological organizations and societies throughout the world. NCEP is a critical national resource in national and global weather prediction. NCEP is the starting point for nearly all weather forecasts in the United States. The Centers are: Aviation Weather Center (AWC), Climate Prediction Center (CPC), Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), NCEP Central Operations (NCO), National Hurricane Center (NHC), Ocean Prediction Center (OPC), Storm Prediction Center (SPC), Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC), Weather Prediction Center (WPC)