Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for September – November 2017. Dated December 2017.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for June – August 2017. Dated September 2017.
Warmest summer on record for California and Nevada; second warmest for Oregon, 3rd warmest for Utah, and 4th for Washington and Arizona. Several locations set record for all-time warmest month in July: Reno, NV, Salt Lake City, UT, and Bakersfield, CA. Much drier than normal conditions across northern tier of West; Montana had 2nd driest summer on record. Moderate to exceptional drought conditions developed across Montana.
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.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for March – May 2017. Dated June 2017.
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.
Quarterly Climate Impacts and Outlook for the Western Region for December 2016 – February 2017. Dated March 2017.