Southwest Drought Briefing: October 26, 2021

Welcome to the Southwest Drought Update

Speaker: Emile Elias | USDA Southwest Climate Hub

• Welcome to the October Southwest Drought Briefing. These half-hour webinars will be held monthly for as long as this region is experiencing extreme and exceptional drought conditions.
• Introduction of speakers:
  • Dave DuBois, New Mexico State Climatologist, New Mexico State University 
  • Anna Weinberg, Co-lead of Sharing Management Practices Team and Research Specialist with CCAST

Drought & Climate Update

Speaker: Dave DuBois | New Mexico State Climatologist, New Mexico State University

• The Monsoon brought short-term improvement, but long-term drought continues.
• The West Coast has benefitted from rain from an atmospheric river (late October).
• Reservoir storage in the western U.S. is still very low.
• La Niña and the winter climate outlook indicate a warm and dry winter is likely for the Southwest.

Sharing Effective Management Strategies

Speaker: Anna Weinberg | Co-lead of Sharing Management Practices Team and Research Specialist with CCAST

• The Southwest Drought Learning Network (DLN) has established a network for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing.
  • The DLN Sharing Management Practices Team is focused on sharing transferable stories and lessons learned from dealing with historic drought.
• The Sharing Management Team has partnered with the Collaborative Conservation Adaptation Strategy Toolbox (CCAST) platform to share case studies of effective management practices.
• You can read the existing case studies here from the Case Study Dashboard and Library.

Question & Answer

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