NOAA Drought Seminar Series: Drought, El Niño, and California

When El Niño is mentioned with respect to California, images of extreme storms from the winters of 1983 and 1998 often come to mind. Although El Niño does shift the distribution of precipitation outcomes towards wet, dry outcomes do occur. Of the seven events where the Relative Niño Index exceeded 2.0 during winter in California, three ended up with below-average precipitation and below-average snowpack. 

In this virtual seminar, Michael Anderson, from State of California Department of Water Resources, will compare the seven very strong El Niño events, exploring factors that separate wet and dry outcomes in California’s water year.

About the Seminar Series

This event is part of the NOAA Drought Seminar Series, a collaborative effort between NOAA Research's Physical Sciences Laboratory, the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), and the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center. The series aims to enhance NOAA's capability to monitor, predict, and understand drought behavior. Drought is a key part of NOAA Research's science priorities aimed at confronting the challenges of a changing planet. It is also a key focus of National Weather Service operational forecast products and services, supporting stakeholder decision-making and reducing drought-related costs and impacts.

Each session will feature a speaker presentation, a question and answer period with the presenter, and general updates on activities within the drought science and services community. Individual session information, including connection details, is available on the NOAA Drought Seminar Series web page. These seminars will be recorded.

The Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) and National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) are part of NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

For additional information, please contact Andy Hoell with NOAA Research's Physical Sciences Laboratory.