Quarterly Climate impacts and Outlook for the Eastern Region for March – May 2016. Dated June 2016.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region March – May 2016. Dated June 2016.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Gulf of Maine Region for March – May 2016. Dated June 2016.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlooks for the Pacific Region for March – May 2016. Dated June 2016.
Quarterly Climate impacts and Outlook for the Great Lakes Region for March – May 2016. Dated June 2016.
Launched in 2012, the Coastal Carolinas Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) is a collaborative federal, state, and local interagency effort to improve early warning capacity and resilience to drought with an emphasis on the unique coastal ecosystems of North and South Carolina. Drought in coastal areas can contribute to changing water quality conditions, particularly increased salinity levels and fluctuations, and changes in the availability and timing of freshwater to support animals, plants, and habitats.
The Carolinas Integrated Sciences and Assessments (CISA) developed an experimental method of drought monitoring and reporting by citizen scientists. This method of condition monitoring encourages CoCoRaHS volunteers to submit regular reports about the effects of local precipitation on the environment and society, creating a baseline against which to assess change through time (i.e., seasonally, with varying levels of precipitation).
The Carolinas Integrated Sciences and Assessments (CISA) team is creating a digital atlas of hydroclimate extremes in the Carolinas. The atlas will complement existing information sources on extreme precipitation (e.g. NOAA’s Atlas 14) and drought (e.g., products from the National Drought Mitigation Center). It will include maps and figures characterizing various measures of precipitation, drought, and the water balance.
Coastal droughts have a different dynamic from upland droughts, which are typically characterized by agricultural, hydrologic, meteorological, and (or) socioeconomic impacts. The location of the freshwater-saltwater interface in surface-water bodies is an important factor in the ecological and socioeconomic dynamics of coastal communities. Because of the uniqueness of drought impacts on coastal ecosystems, a Coastal Salinity Index (CSI) was developed using an approach similar to the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI).
NIDIS sponsored a planning meeting on June 2, 2016, in Wilmington, North Carolina to gather stakeholder input on the development of a Coastal Carolinas DEWS Strategic Plan. The meeting convened partners to: