Southwest Drought Briefing: January 27, 2022

Welcome to the Southwest Drought Update

Speaker: Joel Lisonbee | NOAA/National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)

• Welcome to the January 2022 Southwest Drought Briefing. These half-hour webinars will be held monthly for as long as this region is experiencing extreme and exceptional drought conditions.
• Acknowledgment of land.
• Learn more about the Southwest Drought Learning Network.
• View past webinar recordings at drought.gov/webinars.
• Introduction of the speakers:
  • Peter Goble, Colorado Climate Center, Colorado State University
  • Tonya Haigh, National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska – Lincoln

Drought & Climate Update

Speaker: Peter Goble | Colorado Climate Center at the Colorado State University

• While cold weather puts many drought impacts on hiatus, we are still dealing with considerable hydrological deficits.
• Region-wide snowpack is above historical averages, but we entered the season with a low water table and root zone soils.
• Spring conditions have a large influence on the coming season, but the Climate Prediction Center projects increased probabilities of below-normal precipitation for March–May.
• Reservoir storage is a serious long-term issue for the Southwest U.S.
• This runoff year is likely to be better than the last two, but we aren’t ensured a big one.

Monitoring Dashboard for Managing Drought Risk on the Ranch

Speaker: Tonya Haigh | National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska – Lincoln

• The National Drought Mitigation Center has produced a new tool for Making Decisions on the Ranch During Drought.
• Access the new tool here: Monitoring Dashboard for Managing Drought Risk on the Ranch.

Questions & Answers

Speaker: Emile Elias | USDA Southwest Climate Hub