Introduction to webinar with agenda; information about drought early warning, the Pacific Northwest DEWS and NIDIS; and Climate Recap Covering Last Year's Water Year.
The PNW DEWS Strategic Plan outlines priority tasks and activities to build drought early warning capacity and resilience. Partners across the region assisted NIDIS, the Pacific Northwest Climate Impacts Research Consortium(link is external) (CIRC, a NOAA RISA team), and the National Drought Mitigation Center (link is external)(NDMC) with the development of this Plan. The Plan includes a list of current partners, outcomes, and key milestones.
Agenda; what is NIDIS; what is a DEWS; information about the Pacific Northwest DEWS; upcoming events.
Data and maps summarizing conditions in the Pacific Northwest: U.S. Drought Monitor; precipitation and temperature; snowpack; reservoir storage; streamflow.
Basic information on the USDA Climate Hubs.
Current and forecast ENSO conditions (El Niño/La Niña) for summer 2017; climate outlooks for temperature and precipitation through September 2017; drought outlook through July.
An overview of grazing and fuels and their relationship to wildfire. Summary:
- Grazing can reduce fuels.
- Grazing will not stop fires under very hot & dry conditions.
- Grazing can reduce cheatgrass & grazing can increase cheatgrass.
- Grazing can reduce fire intensity & promote recovery after fire.
How patterns in snowmelt and streamflow are related, anecdotal “Rules of Thumb” and statistical tools for measuring the amount of snow, when it melts and how quickly it melts in different parts of Idaho.
Update on Pacific Northwest regional activities by various climate research and information groups.
Water Year 2016-17 conditions in the Payette and Owyhee River drainages.