WERA_OLD102: Climate Data and Analyses for Applications in Agriculture and Natural Resources

(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)

Status: Inactive/Terminating

Project Menu

SAES-422 Reports

Annual/Termination Reports:

[05/01/2006] [12/20/2006] [11/01/2007] [01/21/2009] [12/17/2009]

Date of Annual Report: 05/01/2006

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 10/05/2005 - 10/07/2005
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2004 - 09/01/2005

Participants

Scott Archer (USDI-Bureau of Land Management)-scott_archer@
blm.gov; Jan Curtis (USDA-NRCS National Water & Climate Center)-jan.curtis@por.usda.gov; Nolan Doesken (Colorado State University)-nolan@atmos.colostate.edu; Laura Edwards (Western Regional Climate Center)-Laura.Edwards@dri.edu; Francis Fujioka (USDA-Forest Service)-ffujioka@fs.fed.us; Ned Guttman (National Climatic Data Center)-Ned.Guttman@noaa.gov; Russ Qualls (University of Idaho)-rqualls@uidaho.edu; Dick Reinhardt (Western Regional Climate Center)-Dick.Reinhardt@dri.edu; George Taylor (Oregon State University)-taylor@coas.oregonstate.edu;

Brief Summary of Minutes

Scott Archer, 2005 President, asked members present for any changes to last years meeting minutes (http://www.lgu.umd.edu/lgu_v2/homepages/saes.cfm?trackID=404); as there were none, last years meeting minutes were approved unanimously by all members present. As there is no current (2005) Secretary, who would automatically become the 2006 President, nominations were solicited for both the 2006 President and Secretary positions. Jan Curtis was nominated unanimously by all members present to become the 2006 Secretary (and therefore the 2007 President), subject to his new employers approval. As there were no further nominations, the 2006 President position is currently vacant. All members present were encouraged to solicit nominations, including contact with the following members who were not present: Kelly Redmond (Western Regional Climate Center), Greg Johnson (NRCS-National Air Quality and Atmospheric Change Team), and Peter Palmer (USDI-Bureau of Reclamation, AgriMet Program
Coordinator.)

The Committee discussed the need to encourage more participation at the Annual Meetings. The following individuals are currently listed as Committee members:
Scott Archer, USDI-BLM, scott_archer@blm.gov Pao Shin-Chu, University of Hawaii/State Climate Office, chu@soest.hawaii.edu Michael Crimmins, University of Arizona, crimmins@u.arizona.edu Jan Curtis, USDA-NRCS, jan.curtis@por.usda.gov Arthur Gaetano, Cornell University, atd2@cornell.edu Nolan Doesken, CSU/Colorado Climate Center, nolan@atmos.colostate.edu Francis Fujioka, USDA-Forest Service, ffujioka@fs.fed.us Greg Johnson, USDA-NRCS, greg.johnson@por.usda.gov Esmaiel Malek, USU/ Utah Climate Center, emalek@mendel.usu.edu Peter Palmer, USDI-BOR, ppalmer@pn.usbr.gov Roger Pielke, CSU/Colorado Climate Center, roger.pielke@colostate.edu Russ Qualls, UI/Idaho State Climate Office, rqualls@uidaho.edu Kelly Redmond, DRI/WRCC, krwrcc@dri.edu Ted Sammis, NMSU/New Mexico Climate Center, tsammis@nmsu.edu Lee Sommers (Advisor), CSU/Agri Experiment Station , Lee.Sommers@ColoState.EDU Joyce Strand, UC/Integrated Pest Management, jfstrand@ucdavis.edu George Taylor, OSU/Oregon Climate Service, taylor@coas.oregonstate.edu Yubin Yang, TA&M/Agri Research & Extension Center, yyang@aesrg.tamu.edu

The following individuals have also indicated an interest in participating as Committee members:
Laura Edwards, DRI/WRCC, Laura.Edwards@dri.edu Ned Guttman, NOAA/NCDC, Ned.Guttman@noaa.gov Tim Owen, NOAA/NCDC, Tim.Owen@noaa.gov

In addition, the Committee should consider inviting the following individuals to attend future meetings:
Tony Bergantino, Wyoming State Climate Office, stateclim@wrds.uwyo.edu Chris Daly, Oregon Climate Service, daly@coas.oregonstate.edu Michael Dettinger, USGS-WRD, mddettin@usgs.gov Andrew Ellis, ASU/Arizona Office of Climatology, dellis@asu.edu John Gordon, USGS-WRD, jgordon@usgs.gov Jessica Lowery, NOAA-CIRES, jessica.lowrey@noaa.gov Phil Mote, Washington State Climate Office, philip@atmos.washington.edu Kristen Nelson, UOA-CLIMAS, knelson7@email.arizona.edu Phil Pasteris, USDA-NRCS, phil.pasteris@usda.gov Donald Potts, UOM/Montana Climate Office, don.potts@cfc.umt.edu Andrea Ray, NOAA-CDC, andrea.ray@noaa.gov Mark Svoboda, National Drought Mitigation Center, msvoboda2@unl.edu Lara Whitley-Binder, UOW/Climate Impacts Group, whitelybinder@yahoo.com Klaus Wolther, NOAA-CIRES, klaus.wolter@noaa.gov Jeff Underwood, UNR/Nevada State Climate Office, jeffu@unr.edu

For next year's meeting, the Committee discussed having a focus topic, such as global climate change or mountain climate/influence on western climate, perhaps inviting speakers, and in a location such as Mount Hood (OR) or Lake Tahoe/Reno (NV.) Alternate meeting times were discussed, such as August/September, or later in October. Laura Edwards (WRCC) volunteered to pursue developing the meeting details.

The Committee discussed the needs for the WERA-102 project, especially in light of other opportunities (such as the American Association of State Climatologists), and it was re-affirmed that this Committee provides activity-specific benefits, especially focused on western issues, not provided by other organizations.

The Committee reviewed its current Western Extension Research Activity
(WERA) Project Plan effective October 1, 2005 to September 30, 2010, as approved by the Western Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (WAAESD). Key items include the Objectives: 1) Coordinate collection and dissemination of weather and climate data and information in the western U.S. and serve as a forum for discussion of related issues; 2) Identify weather and climate issues and support research related to agriculture and natural resources especially in the West; 3) Promote access to, and use of, weather- and climate-based products in order to improve monitoring and decision making related to agriculture and natural resources issues (e.g.; drought, fire, water supply); and 4) Coordinate the development of new climatological analysis technologies such as remote sensing and geographic information systems. In addition, the Committee will conduct a detailed educational session at each annual meeting about current priority issues.

Additional discussion focused on common climate data and process concerns.
Items included: 1) data availability and quality concerns (ACIS/NCDC/RCCs);
2) funding sources and data needs; 3) National Integrated Drought Information System; 4) climate change issues (mapping, changing run-off patterns); 5) urban water managers need for climate information; 6) expanded drought discussions (guidance to State Engineers, what do agri/muni water managers really need to know); 7) what are uncertainties in water supply (monitoring system design, snow-pack/streamflow/run-off forecasts); and 8) data quality and users needs. Key focus areas in the future include: climate change, data systems, drought, projects/funding, and water users.

A specific topic area is water supply, including: 1) streamflow modeling (WYCC); 2) native grass phenology (WYCC); 3) snow-pack melt/flooding; 4) water supply/transport; and 5) drought (water management, natural re-occurrence, phenology).

Accomplishments

Ned Guttman, National Climatic Data Center, presented several spatial techniques used in quality control/quality assurance. He described several interagency efforts to develop and utilize tools to improve the quality of climate data used for a wide variety of applications and policy efforts. He also described the planned development and implementation of the Climate Reference Network of new monitoring and data management systems. Finally, there was also discussion of quality management processes in the Cooperative Observer Monitoring Network. Dick Reinhardt, Western Regional Climate Center, described several projects associated with remote wind monitoring to support MM5 modeling, Washoe County evapo-transpiration measurements, Nevada-wide wind energy potential, as well as RAWS data management and sensor evaluations. Jan Curtis, until recently the Wyoming State Climatologist and Director of the Wyoming Water Resources Data System, provided his Annual Report about several Water Basin Plans, based on information obtained when preparing the Wyoming Climate Atlas. They use Basin Advisory Groups, and instrumentation (such as soil moisture sensors) to evaluate drought model predictions. Jan also mention the expansion of the CoCoRaHS network with support of the Farm Services Agency, a multi-million dollar weather modification project, and distribution of drought-related information throughout the State (he estimates drought represents about half of his work efforts.) He also provided the newest Water Resources Data System brochure. George Taylor, Oregon State Climatologist, gave a very detailed presentation A Probabilistic-Spatial Approach to the Quality Control of Climate Observations, and described their extensive use of mapping products to interpret and distribute climate information through the Spatial Climate Analysis Service (http://www.ocs.orst.edu/prism/). Francis Fujioka, Research Meteorologist, USDA-Forest Service, discussed research into both the Hawaii Fire Danger Rating System (http://fireweb.pdc.org/) as well as land use planning efforts to address Living With Fire In The Chaparral Ecosystem. Francis also had an interesting video clip (see htest8.vc) modeling fire progression in the wildland-urban interface. Laura Edwards, Western Regional Climate Center, gave a presentation regarding their support of California Climate-related activities, including support from the California Energy Commission. Activities include monitoring long-term variability and change, the California Climate Watch (http://calclim.dri.edu/), the Terrain Induced Rotor Experiment, or T-REX (http://www.joss.ucar.edu/trex/), and a National Park Service inventory and monitoring program. Russ Qualls, Idaho State Climatologist, described two projects, including a planned re-alignment of U.S Highway 95 subject to fog and ice impacts, and a study of carbon and water fluxes from forests. Russ also provided a detailed report of activities related to WERA-102 objectives (see Qualls-2005 Annual Report.doc). Nolan Doesken, Colorado Climate Center, presented a through description of Climate Services provided to interested parties in Colorado, including an update on the very successful volunteer CoCoRaHS Program. Scott Archer, USDI-Bureau of Land Management, shared three items of interest with the Committee. First, the Society for Range Management has prepared its Rangelands and Global Change issue paper, which is available for distribution (www.rangelands.org/pdf/Global_Issue_Paper.pdf). He also shared an Abstract for HCDN: A U.S. Geological Survey streamflow data set for the United States for the study of climate variations, 1874 1998 (http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1992/ofr92-129/), and a restricted draft of the Table of Contents from Our Changing Planet (the U.S. Climate Change Science Program for FY 2006; now at http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/Library/ocp2006/default.htm). Educational Session The Committee also conducted an Educational Session on the topic of Global Climate Change Science and Policy Implications in the West. George Taylor initiated the open-discussion session with his informative presentation An Assessment of Climate Change in The Pacific Northwest. Each Committee member related their own experiences, concerns, and opinions regarding the observed conditions, potential causes and effects, policy implications, and potential responses to this issue which has impacted how climate-related activities are addressed in the West. Although few conclusions were drawn, the Committee agreed that a similar timely topic should be identified, scheduled, and discussed at future annual meetings.

Publications

Impact Statements

Date of Annual Report: 12/20/2006

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 10/31/2006 - 11/02/2006
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2005 - 09/01/2006

Participants

Sommers, Lee(lee.sommers@colostate.edu)-Colo St Univ, Ag Exp Station;
Curtis, Jan(jan.curtis@por.usda.gov)-NRCS-Nat Water and Climate Ctr;
Anderson, Mike(manderso@water.ca.gov)-CA Dept of Water Resources;
Crimmins, Mike(crimmins@u.arizona.edu)-Dept Soil, Water & Env Sci, UAz;
Selover, Nancy(selover@asu.edu)-Arizona State Univ;
Gray, Steve(sgray8@uwyo.edu)-Univ of Wyoming;
Doesken, Nolan(nolan@atmos.colostate.edu)-Colorado St Univ;
Gillies, Rob(robert.gillies@usu.edu)-Utah State Univ;
Hidalgo, Hugo(hhidalgo@ucsd.edu)-Scripps Inst of Oceanography;
Snyder, Rick(rlsnyder@ucdavis.edu)-Univ of Calif-Davis;
Edwards, Laura (laura.edwards@dri.edu)-WRCC/DRI;
Redmond, Kelly(krwrcc@dri.edu)-WRCC/DRI;
Sammis, Ted(tsammis@nmsu.edu)-New Mexico State Univ;
Archer, Scott(scott_archer@blm.gov)-USDI-BLM;
Strand, Joyce(jfstrand@ucdavis.edu)-UC-IPM Program;
Owen, Tim(tim.owen@noaa.gov)-NCDC;
Taylor, George (taylor@coas.oregonstate.edu)-Oregon State Univ;
Lewis, John(john.lewis@dri.edu)-NSSL, DRI;
Arnone, Jay(jay.arnone@dri.edu)-DRI/DEES;
Palmer, Peter(ppalmer@pn.usbr.gov)-US Bureau Reclamation;
Hoekman, Kent(skho@dri.edu)-DRI;

Brief Summary of Minutes

With the renewed five year charter of WERA-102 in 2005, one of the tasks for its continuance was to have a special topic session pertaining to agriculture and climate. During this years meeting, the special topic to fulfill this mandate was evapo-transportation (ET). Richard L. Snyder UCDavis Biometeorology specialist, Hugo Hildago Scripps, and Greg McCurdy WRCC were the invited speakers.

As Jan Curtis, 2006 Secretary, will automatically become the 2007 Chair, nominations were solicited for 2007 Secretary. George Taylor (Oregon State Climate Office) was nominated unanimously by all members present inabsentia.
The Committee discussed the need to encourage more participation at the Annual Meetings including National Weather Service staff. An overture from Robert Seem, Chair of NC1018 to hold a joint meeting with WERA-102 is being explored for next year with the Colorado Front Range as the venue (tentatively scheduled between mid August to late September). A major focus of NC1018 is the creation of a 30-year, county-level database for climate, crops, and soils. Closely related to this is work on crop simulation models and risk management under varying climate conditions. Since both our groups are a multi-state research committee, they are also looking for opportunities to secure multi-institutional funding.

WERA-102 has established a sub-committee (co-chairs: Ted Samis and Greg McCurdy) to examine operational and quality assurance issues, with recommendations anticipated to improve usefulness and reliability. See also USDA-Forest Service report: A review of the Forest Service Remote Automated Weather Station (RAWS) network (http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr119.pdf).

Presentations, discussions, and individual annual reports are located at:

ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/support/climate/wera102
ftp://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/support/climate/crops/wera102/WERA-102_2006.doc
ftp://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/support/climate/crops/wera102/annual%20reports

Accomplishments

University of Arizona Climate Science Applications Program and Climate Science Extension http://cals.arizona.edu/climate Southwest Climate Outlook: The Southwest Climate Outlook is jointly published each month by the Climate Assessment for the Southwest project and University of Arizona Cooperative Extension. The climate outlook summarizes over 20 climate products with regionally specific interpretations and highlights. This work is funded, in part, by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Technology Research Initiative Fund of the University of Arizona Water Sustainability Program. The web-published newsletter is viewed by over 2,000 people each month. (http://www.ispe.arizona.edu/climas/forecasts/swoutlook.html) Regional Climate Summaries for Arizona: Two regional (Northwest and Southeast Arizona) climate summaries are now being produced quarterly by the Climate Science Applications Program. These 2-page newsletters have been developed in conjunction with local county extension agents and are distributed through range/livestock newsletters. Current conditions for each multi-county region as well as forecast information are discussed in each summary which a current distribution to over 600 people. http://cals.arizona.edu/climate/proj/seaz/index.htm) Climate Change and Range Management Workshop, January 2006: A workshop was held in conjunction with the Arizona Section of the Society for Range Management winter meeting and drew together over 140 participants representing private ranches as well as land managers from federal, state, and local land management agencies. Eleven presenters from the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, New Mexico State University, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service provided cutting edge information on recent climate changes, climate change projections and the implications for range management. A workshop exercise integrated future climate change projections with state & transition models to provide a framework for participants to manage a hypothetical land unit under change climatic conditions into the future. (http://cals.arizona.edu/climate/ws/srm2006/srm2006.htm) USDI-Bureau of Land Management - National Science and Technology Center BLM is evaluating participation in CoCoRaHS (http://www.cocorahs.org/) by providing 4 in plastic rain gauges and hail pads to ranchers in Colorado in order to obtain more precipitation information on the range lands. If the 'prototype' works well in Colorado, BLM is interested in expanding their involvement throughout the West. Climate Office of California The past year has been a period of restart and reorganization for the state climate office of California. A new agreement between the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the National Climatic Data Center was signed designating DWR the state climate office (SCO). Since that time the state climatologist has been organizing elements of DWR activities under the SCO including the California Irrigation Management Information System (CIMIS) and the California Data Exchange Center (CDEC) databases. Looking ahead to the coming year the SCO is planning to work with agency personnel and university researchers under the Agency and Academic Research Collaborative (AARC) on a variety of topics. University of California Statewide IPM Program (UC IPM) Worked with the Western IPM Center-sponsored weather systems work group to develop concepts for a collaborative weather-based IPM system; identified possible components of a system, operational needs, research gaps/needs, possible approaches. Group received NRI grant to identify, quantify, and present uncertainties in a weather-based pest modeling system. UC IPM's Web system continues to provide a variety of online, weather-based products for growers and consultants, and use continues to increase. Currently implementing a walnut blight model, Xanthocast, and scab and fireblight models for pears and apples, all intended to be used by growers to improve on-farm decision making. Colorado State University - Colorado Climate Center Have completed the 118th year of uninterrupted daily weather observations from the Fort Collins weather station on the CSU campus. These data were used by many organizations for research and operations. Colorado Agricultural Meteorological Network (COAGMET) - expanded this collaborative network of remote automated weather stations to 57 -- representing most of Colorado's irrigated agricultural lands. Currently funding a 1/4 time field technician and working to improve data quality and metadata documentation. Current emphasis continues to be using COAGMET data to improve estimates of evapotranspiration in order to improve water use efficiency. But many new applications have emerged for timely weather data from agricultural areas -- such as renewable energy, environmental quality, and education. Have conducted a review and update of heating and cooling design temperatures in support of building construction and code standards. Have currently conducting a nationwide test and evaluation of the field readiness of ultrasonic snow depth sensors for potential near-term use by the National Weather Service to improve snow measurement in the U.S. Are working collaboratively with the Western Water Assessment (RISA) to thoroughly evaluate recent and historic trends in seasonal temperatures in all areas of Colorado. This involves extensive metadata evaluation and time series analyses Hail Cannon evaluation. We are currently assisting the citizens of southern Colorado in evaluating local scale rain and hail patterns in the San Luis Valley of south central Colorado. A network of hail cannons are operated there during summer months by a large producer of organic vegetables. Local controversy over the use of hail suppression techniques has resulted in a community effort to measure and report rain and hail. A preliminary report will be provided in January 2007. CoCoRaHS -- Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network. This network of citizen volunteers measuring and reporting precipitation from over 1000 backyards across Colorado has become an integral part of Colorado's climate monitoring activities. This network has now expanded to 13 states including Wyoming and New Mexico. With the help of new funding from NOAA, continued expansion is expected. Montana will be joining the network in December 2006. New Mexico State University - New Mexico Climate Center Program New Mexico Climate Center is developing a Lenox based web server to replace the windows based system. The new system will use a structured query language data base management system to handle the incoming data. A simplified irrigation nomograph is being developed base on long term average climate data to schedule irrigation in pecan orchards because the climate internet based system was not used by the grower. The assistant state climatologist became the leader of the drought monitor task force in New Mexico. The assistant state climatologist has been working with CLIMAS to outreach information about drought in New Mexico USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service - National Water and Climate Center http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/ The PRISM spatial climatology datasets have been updated to include the 1971-2000 maximum and minimum temperatures, dew point, and precipitation monthly and annual means and totals (http://www.ocs.oregonstate.edu/prism/products/matrix.phtml?vartype=tmax&view=maps). Unlike the 1961-1990 data that was produced at a 4km resolution, this latter data are at a 30 arc sec (~800 m) resolution. Improvements in the data include better coastal, inversion, and mountain rain shadow parameterization. The SNOTEL Network (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/) has been operating in the Western States for more than 25 years. Despite difficulties in maintaining these remote mountain stations, most observations are received with high reliability. However, about five percent of the temperature data are lost (missing) and another three percent are corrupt. In order to replace missing or suspect data, the PRISM Group (http://mistral.oce.orst.edu/www/snotelqc/) at Oregon State University, under contract by the NRCS, has developed a QC methodology that employees the PRISM spatial climatology. The end result is all daily observations (taken at midnight) are compared with nearby stations and are given confidence probabilities as to the reliability of the QC fix. These level II flags are therefore conditional and the end user can determine a threshold that is deemed acceptable. The original data and the PRISM predicted and (blended) final QC values are shown in a statistical output file. A contract to create a 4km daily gridded PRISM dataset of the lower-48 using COOP temperature and precipitation is underway with a completion date of 30 September 2007. The period will cover 1960 to 2001. When completed, the data will be accessible via the internet for free. AgACIS has been launched through the NRCS DataMart for USDA internal use. This is part of the ACIS (http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/products/current.html), xmACIS (http://www.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=ilx) (NWS NOWData) backbone. It is expected that these climate resources will be part of the NIDIS (http://www.westgov.org/wga/publicat/nidis.pdf) portal. A new NRCS Soil Classification (http://soils.usda.gov/survey/geography/mlra/index.html) is now available. Although not directly related to climate, knowing soil type helps with the computation of ET, soil erosion, and air quality. Have been involved in the planning phases of NIDIS (http://usgeo.gov/docs/nto/NIDIS_NTO_2006-0925.pdf). In contract to develop a new Plant Hardiness Map for the lower-48 using ~800 m resolution PRISM (1971-2000). This product is expected by mid-2007. VIPER (New water supply forecasting tool) summarized at: (ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/downloads/centennial/article3220060925.pdf) Enhancing SNOTEL network with secondary sensors (Wind, Humidity, Radiation, Soil Moisture, Soil Temperature, Fuel Moisture Sensor fire potential) Adding SCAN sites (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/scan/) as described (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/scan/SCAN-brochure.pdf) Incorporate Google Earth applications for better data display (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/earth/index.html) Incorporate GIS for SNOTEL Data display (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/gis/index.html) Oregon State University - Oregon Climate Service Worked with NOAA, USDA and other agencies who collect meteorological data to provide better dissemination methods Worked with Western Regional Climate Center on improved methods for near real-time input of information from NOAA Cooperative observers Developed mapping techniques to provide daily and monthly climate maps Participated in the Oregon Drought Council and Oregon Water Availability Committee, which examined water supply issues in the state. OCS has worked with the National Weather Service to develop improvements to the PRISM model which is used for creating detailed climate maps. OCS participated with a multi-year USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in creating new methods for spatial quality control of weather and climate information. Development of new methods for estimating Probable Maximum Precipitation and other extreme precipitation events using GIS. Chaired the Climate subcommittee of the Oregon GIS Framework Implementation Team. Climate is one of 13 discipline areas falling under Oregons Geographic Information Council, which coordinates state GIS activities. A cooperative effort with Alabama A&M University has involved collection of soil moisture data and other parameters in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee for USDA-NRCS. This represents an expansion of NRCS SCAN network for soil moisture monitoring. US Bureau of Reclamation Reclamation continues to cooperate with the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory to transfer information from three existing stations to Reclamations computer system for use in crop water modeling. Enhancements continue to be made to Reclamations AgriMet Home Page on the World Wide Web to improve access to weather and crop water use information. Near-real time weather data from AgriMet stations continue to be incorporated into several other networks to improve the delivery of timely weather data to a variety of users: the Mesowest Network (sponsored by the University of Utah), the National Weather Service in Missoula, MT (Current surface observations in the Pacific Northwest), and PAWS -- the Public Agricultural Weather System sponsored by Washington State University. AgriMet weather data is utilized daily by the Oregon State University Integrated Plant Protection Center for degree day and pest management modeling. January, 2006: BPA began using AgriMet ET data as a baseline for incentive payments to customers for practicing irrigation scheduling. Reclamation is working with BPAs contractor to insure that the crop consumptive use information from AgriMet is being used correctly. February 22, 2006: Peter Palmer, Mike Darrington, and Brian Sauer (area water conservation coordinator) met with Dr. Marshall English of OSU to review and critique a new web based irrigation scheduling program. The program use AgriMet data for ET-based irrigation scheduling. April, 2006: Peter Palmer, on the behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation, was listed as a cooperator for a major research project funding request submitted by Oregon State University. The project, if funded, will develop a GIS-based approach for a variety of agricultural topics, including irrigation and climate. Utah State University - Utah Climate Center The Utah Climate Center contracts with Colorado State University to maintain UVB irradiance equipment located in Logan. This involves weekly visits to inspect and clean the equipment. Minor repairs of broken cables, loose screws, and data transfer problems, as well as battery maintenance is required. The Logan UVB monitoring site was featured on the 2003 annual reports cover. The Utah Climate Center operates the only NADP site in Northern Utah. The NADP works with the National Trends Network (NTN) to measure chemical changes in atmospheric deposition and its effects on crops, forest, rangelands, surface waters, and natural and cultural resources. This is achieved through the collection of weekly precipitation samples. These samples are processed at the Utah Climate Center office and then mailed within 48 hours to NADP laboratory in Champaign Illinois. Written records concerning the samples are maintained for two years, and must be assessable for inquiries made by the NADP laboratory. Critical data has revealed high levels of ammonium in Northern Utah. This data was recovered through weekly samples submitted to the NADP laboratory, demonstrating the significance of our participation. The Utah Climate Center has recently embarked upon a very useful project of mapping all weather stations located in the state of Utah that has data available to the public. This involves researching each stations location, period of record, and organization to which it belongs. So far we have mapped 1775 stations. It is also determined if the station is still active or not and what elements each station is recording. Western Region Climate Center and University of Nevada-Reno Several sites were installed in Denali National Park as well. WRCC has deployed and maintains a set of evapo-transpiration stations around Reno for Washoe County to assist with lawn watering schedules. WRCC is participating in a project to assess the quality and usefulness of daily cooperative snow data, and a paper has been accepted. WRCC is producing a series of 32 inventories of weather and climate stations for 285 national park units, with more information at (www.wrcc.dri.edu/nps). This will lead into a second phase that provides access to such data. Quality control projects were undertaken and completed, to improve geographic subsets of the RAWS data set. WRCC continues to ingest, archive, manage, and distribute RAWS data. The Weather Coder III project with NOAA will use the web to speed the entry (within a few minutes or so) of NWS cooperative data into the national database, and also anticipate a paperless version of the cooperative program. The RCCs are promoting much of these data access issues with the Applied Climate Information System, ACIS (rcc-acis.org). WRCC was represented on several National Research Council panels of relevance to this objective. The first panel is on Scientific Bases for Colorado River Basin Water Management. This report is in final revision. Another is a standing group, the Committee on Geophysical and Environmental Data. This panel oversees the World Data Center program, and can commission other studies. WRCC participated in another NRC meeting on Understanding and Responding to Multiple Environmental Stresses, where the two main topics were Atmosphere-Ecosystem Interactions, and Drought. WRCC participates closely with the four western elements of the NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessment program, located in Colorado, Arizona, California and Washington. WRCC has deployed stations to contribute data to the NOAA Hydro meteorological Test Bed, which is studying orographic precipitation mechanisms in California. WRCC is represented on the Science Advisory Board of the NOAA Climate Test Bed, to help improve the linkage between climate research, climate forecasting, and practical applications. WRCC is also represented on a US CLIVAR panel on Prediction, Predictability, and Applications Interfaces, again to improve the usefulness of climate research. This panel has just been approved to offer a post-doc program to assist in this effort. This continues to include maintenance of web pages to access RAWS (Remote Automatic Weather Station) data and products derived from the data, as well as new applications. A special effort, the California Climate Data Archive (www.calclim.dri.edu) is making much data available to the state of California. Another project has developed improved climate monitoring for Arizona and the Southwest United States (www.wrcc.dri.edu/anom). The Idaho BLM office is sponsoring a project to produce soil moisture estimates for the Great Basin from RAWS data. WRCC is heavily involved in efforts to implement the National Integrated Drought Information System, a collaborative effort that spans government at several levels and other state and non-governmental organizations. A paper on the role of climate variability in western resource management was commissioned by the US Forest Service. Another paper was produced on the Mojave Desert as an outgrowth of a resources management meeting in Redlands CA in 2004. Another paper was produced on evaporation from Crater Lake, Oregon, for which this element can be determined by methods that will work here but not in any other lake in the world. A new method is in preparation to prepare monthly updates on the status of recent California climate behavior, and link this to time series covering the last century or more. Part of this work involves obtaining a detailed understanding of the properties and behavior of such an index. This effort will also blend into efforts to describe past precipitation variations in the Central Valley of California, using 500-year records from California blue oak. The further goal of this work is to establish relationships of these patterns to the larger patters of climate variability that span the Pacific Basin and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere. A NOAA project called Westmap is developing ways to produce time series of selected month combinations for a variety of geographic areas from 1895 through the most recent month, based on 4-km gridded data from PRISM. University of Wyoming - Wyoming State Climate Office and Wyoming Water Resources Data System Conducted a variety of workshops and public meetings on the issues of drought and climate change in Wyoming (see http://www.uwyo.edu/enr/WyomingWater.asp for one example) and the West at large. Helped revive a cooperative program to monitor soil moisture at 17+ sites throughout the states. These activities included joint efforts with UW Ag. Extension and Dept. of Renewable Resources to further standardize reporting procedures and better calibrate field sensors. We are currently seeking additional funds for upgrades and long-term maintenance of these sites. WRDS and the SCO are also pursuing cooperative agreements that would allow installation of soil moisture sensors on platforms operated by researchers at the University of Wyoming and by the State Engineers Office. Continued active participation in the COCORAHS program. Recent efforts have been centered on increasing coverage in underserved areas, and an aggressive pursuit of gauge installations at complimentary observation sites (e.g. Ag. Experiment stations). Participated in a variety of efforts aimed at developing a national network of phenological monitoring sites (http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Geography/npn/). Currently developing a state-level working group that will assess existing climate monitoring capabilities and data needs for the support of agriculture. To date this group includes members from a variety of state and federal agencies (e.g. SEO, USGS), as well as local agricultural producers. Worked with National Park Service units in the Greater Yellowstone Area to assess their climate-monitoring protocols and spatial coverage of climate monitoring sites. A key goal of this work is to help determine if the existing climate monitoring network meets the demands of natural resource management in this region. We are continuing an extensive program aimed at developing new graphical displays and map-based interfaces that will allow farmers, ranchers, and natural resource managers easier access to weather and climate-related data. Instead of performing a text search or scrolling through pages of links to find what they need, users of the WRDS-SCO websites will soon click on a map of the state (or county or river basin, etc.) to gain access to relevant products. We have begun a concerted effort to blend existing data products from multiple agencies in order to produce new, value-added products for agriculture and natural resource management. We are, for example, combining SWE data from NRCS SNOTEL with river stage data from USGS gauging stations in a series of graphics that will help everyone from regional water managers to small irrigators better understand the timing, magnitude, and duration of the spring runoff. Worked with the National Park Service to develop a framework for improving climate-data access and dissemination within its Inventory and Monitoring Program.

Publications

Crimmins, M. A., 2006: A Synoptic Climatological Analysis of Extreme Fire Weather Conditions Across the Southwest United States. International Journal of Climatology, 26, 1001-1016. Bureau of Land Management - http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/wraws/) RAWS Data A. Ruiz T.W. Sammis G.A. Picchioni J.G. Mexal 2005 Irrigation scheduling protocol for treated industrial effluent in the Chihuahua desert 2006 AWWA 98:2 page 123-132 Andales, Allen. J. Wang. T. W. Sammis J. G. Mexal. L.J. Simmons, D. R. Miller, V. P. Gutschick. 2006 A model of pecan tree growth for the management of pruning and irrigation. Agricultural Water Management 84:77-88 Andales, A., J. Wang, T. W. Sammis, J. G. Mexal, L. J. Simmons, and D. R. Miller, 2006. Pecan tree growth-irrigation- pruning management model. Agricultural Water Management. Volume 84, Issues 1-2 , Pages 77-88. Wang, J., T.W. Sammis, C.A. Meier, L.J. Simmons, D.R. Miller, and Z. Samani. 2005. A modified SEBAL model for spatially estimating pecan consumptive water use for Las Cruces, New Mexico. 15th Conference on Applied Climatology. Hilton Savannah DeSoto, Savannah, Georgia. 20-24 June, 2005. Paper number 7.13. Holmén, B., D. Miller, A. Hiscox, W. Yang, J. Wang, T. Sammis, and R. Bottoms. 2006. Aerosol Emissions from Agricultural Field Operations. 2006. Workshop on Agricultural Air Quality: State of the Science Bolger Center, Potomac, Maryland, near Washington DC. June 5 8, 2006. Wang, J., T.W. Sammis, C.A. Meier, L.J. Simmons, D.R. Miller, and D. Bathke. 2005. Remote Sensing Vegetation Recovery after Forest Fires using Energy Balance. Sixth Symposium on Fire and Forest Meteorology Sponsored by American Meteorological Society Radisson Hotel Canmore, AB, Canada 2527 October, 2005. Paper number 7.6. Wang, J., V.P. Gutschick, T.W. Sammis, and C.A. Meier. 2005. Estimating evapotranspiration over the Jornada with remote sensing using Surface Energy Balance. Fifteenth Annual Jornada Symposium. New Mexico State University. July 14, 2005. Wang, J., T.W. Sammis, and V. P. Gutshcick, 2006. Inferring complex patterns of surface flux and atmospheric circulation via remote sensing. Flux Measurements in Difficult Conditions, a Specialist Workshop. Boulder, Colorado, USA, 26-28 January 2006. Wang, J., T. W. Sammis, C. A. Meier, L. J. Simmons, D. R. Miller. 2006. Remote sensing evapotranspiration using energy balance algorithm and algorithm sensitivity analysis. Lineae Terrarum, International Borders Conference. El Paso, Texas, USA - Ciudad Juarez, Mexico - Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA. March 27 - 30, 2006. Wang, J., Ted W. Sammis, and Scott L. Willimas. 2006. Review of satellite remote sensing use in forest health studies. Global Vegetation Workshop. August 8-10, 2006. University of Montana, Missoula, Montana. Wang, J., T.W. Sammis, and J.G. Mexal. 2005. Vegetation recovery three years after los alamos forest fire estimated from ASTER satellite data. New Mexico section, American Society of Agricultural Engineers. Truth or Consequences, NM. March 4, 2005. Wang, J., T.W. Sammis, 2005. Pecan tree water-nutrient management model. Agricultural Nutrient Management Session. 2005 Southern Region Water Quality Conference. Holiday Inn North, Lexington, Kentucky. October 23rd - 26th, 2005. Wang, J., T.W. Sammis, 2005. A sensitivity analysis on remote sensing evapotranspiration algorithm-surface energy balance algorithm for land. American Geography Union Conference, San Francisco, CA, December, 2005. Valentine, Beth, George H. Taylor, Jeffrey K. Stone and Richard R. Halse, 2006. Equine cutaneous fungal granuloma: a study of 44 lesions from 34 horses. European Society of Veterinary Dermatology. 17; 266272. Natural Resources Conservation Service - Provide weekly snowpack and drought monitor updates (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/water/drought/wdr.pl) NRCS soil narrative climatology: (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/soil-nar.pl) NRCS Climate Conservation datasets by county - (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/climate-map.html) and as described at: (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/wets_doc.html) NRCS - to publicize the utility of PRISM, several articles have been released on NRCS This Week on-line newsletter: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/061406/techtip06.14.06.html http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/070506/techtip07.05.06.html http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/071906/techtip07-19-06.html http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/080906/techtip08.09.06.html http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/083006/techtip08.30.06.html http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/101806/techtip101806.html AgriMet: An Irrigation Water Management Tool Palmer, P.L., 2006, Proceedings, Ground Water and Surface Water Under Stress, USCID Conference, Boise Idaho, October 25-27, 2006. US Bureau of Reclamation - AgriMet websites: US Bureau of Reclamation AgriMet websites - Pacific Northwest Region: http://www.usbr.gov/pn/agrimet; Great Plains Region:http://www.usbr.gov/gp/agrimet/index.cfm Malek, E., Davis. T., Martin, R.S., and Silva, P.J. 2006. Meteorological and environmental aspects of one of the worst national air pollution episodes (January, 2004) in Logan, Cache Valley, Utah, U.S.A. Atmos. Research. 79: 108-122. Gray, S.T., J.L. Betancourt, S.T. Jackson and R.G. Eddy. 2006. Roll of multidecadal climate variability in a range extension of pinyon pine. Ecology 87:1124-1130. Pederson, G.T., S.T. Gray, D.B. Fagre and L.J. Graumlich. 2006. Long-duration drought variability and impacts on ecosystem services: A case study from Glacier National Park, Montana USA. Earth Interactions 10(4):1-28. Woodhouse, C.A., S.T. Gray and D.M. Meko. 2006. Updated streamflow reconstructions for the Upper Colorado River Basin. Water Resources Research, 42:W05415, doi:10.1029/2005WR004455. Wyoming Water Resources Data System and State Climate Office documents at: http://www.wrds.uwyo.edu/wrds/wsc/dtf/drought.html http://www.wrds.uwyo.edu/wrds/climatological.html

Impact Statements

A study at the New Mexico Climate Center demonstrated loss of $200 to $600 an acre by pecan growers because of a lack of irrigation scheduling using weather or soil based methods. As a result of this study a new study on the development of a simpler method of scheduling irrigations using long term average climate data was initiated.
Oregon Climate Service in cooperation with the OSU Department of Veterinary Science conducted research focusing on the effects of weather and climate trends on the development and spread of diseases in livestock (horses and goats) in Oregon.
An irrigator in southern Idaho reported pumping energy savings ranging from $10 to $30 per acre annually on irrigated potatoes after he started using the US Bureau of Reclamation AgriMet weather data to schedule his irrigations. He reported total annual power savings from $14,000 to $17,000 annually over his 1400 acres.
Feedback from users of the Wyoming State Climate Office and the Wyoming Water Resources Data System websites has been overwhelmingly positive over the past year with users accessing nearly 250,000 unique page views each month.

Date of Annual Report: 11/01/2007

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 07/25/2007 - 07/27/2007
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2006 - 09/01/2007

Participants

Anderson, Mike-Calif. Dept of Water Resources(manderso@water.ca.gov);Archer, Scott-Bureau of Land Mgmt(Scott_Archer@blm.gov);Bergantino, Tony-Univ. of Wyoming(antonius@uwyo.edu);Curtis, Jan-USDA NRCS(jan.curtis@por.usda.gov);Doesken, Nolan-Colorado State Univ.(nolan@atmos.colostate.edu);Engle, Stan-New Mexico State Univ.(sengle@nmsu.edu);Fujioka, Francis-US Forest Service(ffujioka@fs.fed.us);McGuirk, Marjorie-Natl Climatic Data Center(Marjorie.McGuirk@noaa.gov);Palmer, Peter-US Bureau of Rec(ppalmer@pn.usbr.gov);
Redmond, Kelly-Western Regional Climate Ctr(Kelly.Redmond@dri.edu);Selover, Nancy-Arizona State Univ.(selover@asu.edu);Sommers, Lee-Colorado State Univ.(lee.sommers@colostate.edu); Taylor, George-Oregon State Univ(taylor@coas.oregonstate.edu)

Brief Summary of Minutes

Presentations, discussions, and individual annual reports are located at:

http://www.ocs.orst.edu/pub/reports/wera-102/

Jan Curtis, 2006 President, stepped down and was replaced by George Taylor (Oregon Climate Service). Mike Anderson of California was elected Secretary.
This year the committee met jointly with NC1018, Impact of Climate and Soils on Crop Selection and Management. Some sessions were conducted together, others separate. Participants agreed that the joint meeting was helpful as a means of better understanding scientists from a different region (northcentral US) and a different discipline (soil science).

Accomplishments

California Department of Water Resources This past year has seen the state climate office for California organize itself and develop a program plan, achieve ARSCO certification, and launch a variety of projects in partnership with academic personnel. One of the projects, ET Forecasts, originated out of conversations from the 2006 WERA-102 meeting. In the ET Forecast project, Prof. Rick Snyder from UC Davis worked with the National Weather Service Sacramento Weather Forecast Office (WFO) to develop a 5-day ET forecast product based on existing gridded forecast data the Sacramento WFO was producing. The method used is based on a program for computing ET developed by Prof. Snyder. The forecast product is being verified using data from the California Irrigation Management Information Service (CIMIS) network. A second project with personnel from UC Merced produced monthly summaries of snow covered area assessments for watersheds in the Sierra Nevada derived from MODIS satellite data. The monthly summaries were posted on the state climatologist web site and excerpts were used in the monthly summaries from February through May. A similar effort is planned for the coming year. The third project of note embarked upon during the past year is a partnership with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administrations Earth Science Research Laboratory (NOAA-ESRL) and Scripps Institute of Oceanography to begin implementing an enhanced observation network for extreme precipitation over California. The network will include soil moisture sensors at both CIMIS and snow survey sites, a network of vertically integrated atmospheric moisture sensors based off of the United States Geological Surveys GPS network, and vertically pointing radar at reservoir sites to help identify snow lines during precipitation events. A series of data processing and manipulation tools will also be developed to make data access and analysis functional in an operational environment. Colorado Climate Center Completed the 119th year of continuous climate monitoring at the Fort Collins Weather Station on the CSU campus supporting diverse monitoring and research applications. Coordinated continued expansion and enhancement of the multi-entity Colorado Agricultural Meteorological Network (COAGMET). Pursued funding for technical support and quality control. Conducted in-depth study of alfalfa reference evapotranspiration to determine if data quality, continuity and station siting have been adequate to begin to perform annual variability and trend assessments of ET. With the help of a new grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Education, we are undertaking a multi-state expansion of the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network (CoCoRaHS). This network of local citizens of diverse ages and backgrounds is serving many practical purposes including improved local-scale sub-county monitoring of precipitation patterns, enhancing environmental literacy among volunteer participants, and enhancing partnerships with NWS/State Climate offices. More progress was made toward future automation of snowfall and depth measurements. Complete manual and automated snow depth data were collected for the 2006-07 winter at 17 sites in the U.S. in collaboration with the National Weather Service. Efforts to estimate snowfall from changes in total depth of snow on the ground are ongoing. Extreme cold and snow over portions of eastern Colorado this past winter resulted in coordinated efforts with NWS, FEMA and state and county emergency management offices to improve the delivery and interpretation of data from volunteer weather observers in remote rural areas. Many deficiencies in the current system of information collection, dissemination and interpretation became obvious during this recent winter disaster. We took the first steps during summer 2007 towards Walking Through the Water Year. This is a youth-based water education program connecting students and teachers with the water resources monitoring and research communities to better understand and make use of our weather and water monitoring capabilities. A series of student-conducted water videos and television shows will be produced between now and next year in northern Colorado. Timely precipitation allowed Colorado to make it through the year with excellent crops and improving water supplies, finally exiting the lingering drought that started in 2000 and peaked in 2002. Drought monitoring, outreach, and education continues to be an important routine function of the Colorado Climate Center. Climate change emerged as a top priority of Colorados new Governor. We continued on ongoing project assessing Colorados best long-term weather stations for trend analysis and detection. No weather stations were found to represent the mountain areas of Colorado that were free from data inhomogeneities. USDA NRCS National Water and Climate Center http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/ The PRISM spatial climatology datasets have been updated to include the 1971-2000 maximum and minimum temperatures, dew point, and precipitation monthly and annual means and totals (http://www.ocs.oregonstate.edu/prism/products/matrix.phtml?vartype=tmax&view=maps). Unlike the 1961-1990 data that was produced at a 4km resolution, this latter data are at a 30 arc sec (~800 m) resolution. Improvements in the data include better coastal, inversion, and mountain rain shadow parameterization. The SNOTEL Network (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/) has been operating in the Western States for more than 25 years. Despite difficulties in maintaining these remote mountain stations, most observations are received with high reliability. However, about five percent of the temperature data are lost (missing) and another three percent are corrupt. In order to replace missing or suspect data, the PRISM Group (http://mistral.oce.orst.edu/www/snotelqc/) at Oregon State University, under contract by the NRCS, has developed a QC methodology that employees the spatial climatology along with upper air sound data to identify valley inversions. The end result is all daily observations (taken at midnight) are compared with nearby stations and are given confidence probabilities as to the reliability of the QC fix. These level II flags are therefore conditional and the end user can determine a threshold that is deemed acceptable. The original data and the spatial methodology predicted and (blended) final QC values are shown in a statistical output file. A contract to create a 4km daily gridded PRISM dataset of the lower-48 using COOP temperature and precipitation (gap filed dataset) is underway with a completion date of 30 September 2007. The period will cover 1960 to 2001. When completed, the data will be accessible via the internet for free. These gapped filled data methodology can be reviewed: Eischeid, J.K., P. A. Pasteris, H. F. Diaz, M. S. Plantico, and N. J. Lott, 2000: Creating a serially complete, national daily time series of temperature and precipitation for the Western United States. J. Appl. Meteor., 39, 1580-1591 AgACIS has been launched through the NRCS DataMart for USDA internal use. This is part of the ACIS (http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/products/current.html), xmACIS (http://www.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=ilx) (NWS NOWData) backbone. It is expected that these climate resources will be part of the NIDIS (http://www.westgov.org/wga/publicat/nidis.pdf) portal. A new NRCS Soil Classification (http://soils.usda.gov/survey/geography/mlra/index.html) is now available. Although not directly related to climate, knowing soil type helps with the computation of ET, soil erosion, and air quality. Have been involved in the planning phases of NIDIS (http://usgeo.gov/docs/nto/NIDIS_NTO_2006-0925.pdf). In contract to develop a new Plant Hardiness Map for the lower-48 using ~800 m resolution PRISM (1971-2000). This product is expected by late-2007. VIPER (New water supply forecasting tool) summarized at: (ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/downloads/centennial/article3220060925.pdf) Enhancing SNOTEL network with secondary sensors (Wind, Humidity, Radiation, Soil Moisture, Soil Temperature, Fuel Moisture Sensor fire potential) Adding SCAN sites (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/scan/) as described (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/scan/SCAN-brochure.pdf) Incorporate Google Earth applications for better data display (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/earth/index.html) Incorporate GIS for SNOTEL Data display (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/gis/index.html) New Mexico Climate Center Program The New Mexico Climate Center continues to collect data from automated and manual networks in New Mexico. The data is presented through a web interface in various formats with and consists of both raw and interpolated values. The New Mexico Climate Center is developing a Linux based web server to replace the current Windows 2000 web server. The new Linux system will use an SQL database management system to store the incoming data and will have a more robust data search method with a geo-referenced interface planned for future development. New methods of communication with the automated weather stations maintained by the office New Mexico Climate Center are being tested. Currently, a new weather station is on-line using a combination of radio-based and Internet communications, facilitating more frequent data retrieval. Climate data was used to drive a water balance model for scheduling irrigations in pecans orchards. Additionally, a journal article was written on the adoption of soil based and climate based irrigation scheduling by pecan growers. A simplified irrigation nomograph is being developed based on long term averaged climate data to schedule irrigation in pecan orchards because the climate internet based system was not readily used adopted by the growers in the region. The Assistant State Climatologist became the leader of chairs the State Drought Monitoring Work Group and publishes a monthly drought status report to the drought monitor task force in New Mexico. The Assistant State Climatologist assistant state climatologist has been working with the Climate Assessment of the Southwest program (CLIMAS) to increase outreach efforts on climate information about drought and drought in New Mexico The Assistant State Climatologist has presented talks to the pecan growers, turf managers, and to members of the University of New Mexico (shouldnt this be New Mexico State?) community on the climate information and drought status in New Mexico. The State Climatologist presented at a poster at the Modus workshop in Montana on titled, A review of satellite remote sensing of forest health. Oregon Climate Service, Oregon State University Worked with NOAA, USDA and other agencies who collect meteorological data to provide better dissemination methods Worked with Western Regional Climate Center on improved methods for near real-time input of information from NOAA Cooperative observers Developed mapping techniques to provide daily and monthly climate maps Participated in the Oregon Drought Council and Oregon Water Availability Committee, which examined water supply issues in the state. OCS has worked with the National Weather Service to develop improvements to the PRISM model which is used for creating detailed climate maps. OCS participated with a multi-year USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in creating new methods for spatial quality control of weather and climate information. Development of new methods for estimating Probable Maximum Precipitation and other extreme precipitation events using GIS. Chaired the Climate subcommittee of the Oregon GIS Framework Implementation Team. Climate is one of 13 discipline areas falling under Oregons Geographic Information Council, which coordinates state GIS activities. A cooperative effort with Alabama A&M University has involved collection of soil moisture data and other parameters in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee for USDA-NRCS. This represents an expansion of NRCS SCAN network for soil moisture monitoring. US Bureau of Reclamation BLM operates over 2,000 near-real time solar powered fire weather stations throughout the country. Near-real time data are available from several sources on the web, and archived data (as well as metadata and analysis tools) are available on-line at the Western Regional Climate Center website. BLM field offices participate in a several western State Drought Response Task Forces. Key issues are rangeland vegetation, stock tank evaporation, and streamflow responses to climate variability. In addition, BLM is participating on the U.S. Department of the Interiors Climate Change Task Force, which is addressing: 1) What role does/should USDI have in mitigating greenhouse gasses? and 2) What actions, practices and adaptations might Interior consider as the effects of climate change unfold? After reviewing these roles and practices, the Task Force will: 1) develop options for improving consistency in how we treat climate change in our policies, practices, planning, and related decisions; and 2) recommend improvements in how we take climate changes into consideration as we fulfill our responsibilities. The Task Force has three Committees: Legal and Policy; Land and Water Management; and Science. Participating agencies/offices include: Bureau of Indian Affairs; Bureau of Land Management; Bureau of Reclamation; Minerals Management Service; National Park Service; Office of Insular Affairs; Office of Surface Mining; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; and U.S. Geological Survey. BLM routinely utilizes fire weather information to plan for, and respond to wildfire events. Near-real time fire weather information enhances efficient mobilization of equipment, supplies and personnel, and has enhanced fire-fighter safety by anticipating changing weather conditions. In addition, historical hourly relative humidity and precipitation event information has been useful in evaluating potential visibility impacts from proposed activities through the NEPA process. BLM is very interested in utilizing GIS analysis of multiple time scale Standard Precipitation Indices to assist in rapid response to developing drought in remote rangeland situations. US Forest Service (Fujioka) The ignition potential of wildland fire is critically dependent on the moisture content of the vegetation that fuels the fire, hence on precipitation and relative humidity. After ignition, the spread of the fire is significantly affected by the ambient wind field and terrain. In Hawaii, we examined the effect of synoptic forcing, terrain, and the trade wind inversion on windstorms that form in the channels between the islands. We tested a mesoscale model coupled to a land surface model with a horizontal grid spacing at a kilometer scale to simulate strong downslope flow on the lee side of mountains and ridges. We also compared the accuracy of fuel moisture models, which estimate vegetation moisture content from weather variables. Developed statistical relationships between number and location of large fire events in the West and climate, drought, and fire index variables. Found that a model to predict large fire occurrence from monthly mean temperature and the Palmer drought severity index showed potential to discern areas of high probability of large fires from areas of low to moderate probability of large fires. The model was superior to predictions based on historical fire frequency. Wyoming State Climate Office and Water Resources Data System " Obtained a one-time $435,000 appropriation for the purchase of weather and climate monitoring equipment from the Wyoming State Legislature. We are currently working with several groups drawn from stakeholder communities and various state and federal agencies to determine how these funds can be used to address gaps in our monitoring networks. " Worked with the Governors Drought Task Force and State Department of Agriculture to produce a variety of products (e.g. press releases, informational brochures, etc.) on current drought conditions and water conservation. Co-organized a series of DTF press conferences and press contacts related to current drought conditions. " Worked with NWS and the National Park Service to address monitoring needs related to natural hazards (e.g. landslides and avalanches) in Yellowstone National Park. " Continued to offer ready access to a large suite of water and climate-related data via the World Wide Web. " Hosted a variety of seminars and meetings on the issues of drought and climate change in Wyoming and the West at large. " Continued active participation in the COCORAHS program. Recent efforts have been centered on increasing coverage in underserved areas, and involving agricultural producers in the program. " Initiated a new federally-funded project that examines the effects of drought and climate variability/change on a group of ecologically important pine species in the Northern Rocky Mountains. " Provided logistical and research support to several projects aimed at understanding the contribution of glacial runoff to late-season irrigation and fisheries in Wyoming. " Conducted and collaborated on a variety of research projects aimed at developing a long-term history of water resources and climate for agricultural areas within the state. " Worked with National Park Service to assess their climate-monitoring protocols and spatial coverage of climate monitoring sites. A key goal of this work is to help determine if the existing climate monitoring network meets the demands of natural resource management in this region. " COCORAHS participation also addresses a key problem within the state, namely a lack of precipitation monitoring sites in many areas. " Began creation of a series of ArcIMS interfaces that allow users to explore spatial data in an online-mapping framework. Initial efforts have aimed at mapping irrigated lands in the state, but the next round of work will include an IMS interface that links groundwater resources to climate. " We are continuing an extensive program aimed at developing new graphical displays and map-based interfaces that will allow farmers, ranchers, and natural resource managers easier access to weather and climate-related data. Instead of performing a text search or scrolling through pages of links to find what they need, users of the WRDS-SCO websites will soon click on a map of the state (or county or river basin, etc.) to gain access to relevant products. " We have begun a concerted effort to blend existing data products from multiple agencies in order to produce new, value-added products for agriculture and natural resource management. We are, for example, combining SWE data from NRCS SNOTEL with river stage data from USGS gauging stations in a series of graphics that will help everyone from regional water managers to small irrigators better understand the timing, magnitude, and duration of the spring runoff. " Continued work with the National Park Service to develop a framework for improving climate-data access and dissemination within its Inventory and Monitoring Program. " We are working with a number of researchers from the University of Wyoming and University of Arizona to develop animated maps showing changes in snowpack and seasonal precipitation over the western United States. Through additional collaborations with paleoclimatologists, we also hope to extend these dynamic mapping products to cover the past 500 yr or more. " Actively pursuing the development of map-based interfaces for improved data access. These interfaces are online geopgraphic information systems that link users to dynamic databases and a host of graphical products.

Publications

ARIZONA Crimmins, M. A., 2006: A Synoptic Climatological Analysis of Extreme Fire Weather Conditions Across the Southwest United States. International Journal of Climatology, 26, 1001-1016. NEW MEXICO CLIMATE CENTER PROGRAM Andales, A., J. Wang, T. W. Sammis, J. G. Mexal, L.J. Simmons, D. R. Miller, V. P. Gutschick., 2006: A model of pecan tree growth for the management of pruning and irrigation. Agricultural Water Management, 84, pp. 77-88. DeMouche, L., D. Bathke, and N. Doesken, Master Gardeners Role in Encouraging Water Conservation Using a Rain Gauge Network, Journal of Extension, in press. Kallestad, J.C., T. W. Sammis, J. G. Mexal, and J.White, 2006: Monitoring and Management of Pecan Orchard Irrigation: A Case Study. Hort Technology, 16(4), 1-7. A. Ruiz, A., T.W. Sammis, G.A. Picchioni, and J.G. Mexal, 2005: Irrigation scheduling protocol for treated industrial effluent in the Chihuahua desert. 2006 AWWA, 98(2):2 , pp.age 123-132. Andales, Allen. J. Wang. T. W. Sammis J. G. Mexal. L.J. Simmons, D. R. Miller, V. P. Gutschick. 2006: A model of pecan tree growth for the management of pruning and irrigation. Agricultural Water Management 84:77-88. DeMouche, L., D. Bathke, and N. Doesken, Master Gardeners Role in Encouraging Water Conservation Using a Rain Gauge Network, Journal of Extension, in press. Saucedo, T.W. Sammis, G.A. Picchioni, and J.G. Mexal, 2006: Wastewater application and water use of Larrea tridentate. Ag Water Management, 82(3), 343-353. Simmons, L.J., J. Wang, T. W. Sammis, and D. R. Miller, 2007: An evaluation of two inexpensive energy balance techniques for measuring water use in flood-irrigated pecans. (Carya illinoinensis). Ag Water Management, 88, 181-191. Wang, J., T. W. Sammis, A.A. Andales, L. J. Simmons, V. P. Gutschick, and D. R. Miller, 2007: Crop coefficients of open-canopy pecan orchards. Ag Water Management, 88, 253-262. OREGON CLIMATE SERVICE and PRISM Group) Valentine, Beth, George H. Taylor, Jeffrey K. Stone and Richard R. Halse, 2006. Equine cutaneous fungal granuloma: a study of 44 lesions from 34 horses. European Society of Veterinary Dermatology. 17; 266272. NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE New Weather Generator Technology (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/gem.html) dataset and model (coding) has been released: ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/downloads/climate/gem/GEM_6_States Adjusted wind data has been released: ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/support/climate/wind_daily that contains the follow datasets: ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/support/climate/wind_daily/readme_first.txt Provide weekly snowpack and drought monitor updates (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/water/drought/wdr.pl) Provide soil narrative climatology: (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/soil-nar.pl) Provide Climate Conservation datasets by county (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/climate-map.html) and as described at: (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/wets_doc.html) In an effort to publicize the utility of PRISM, an article was released on NRCS This Week on-line newsletter: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/122006/techtip11.20.06.html http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/061406/techtip06.14.06.html http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/070506/techtip07.05.06.html http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/071906/techtip07-19-06.html http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/080906/techtip08.09.06.html http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/083006/techtip08.30.06.html http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/news/thisweek/2006/101806/techtip101806.html US BUREAU OF RECLAMATION AgriMet: An Irrigation Water Management Tool Palmer, P.L., 2006, Proceedings, Ground Water and Surface Water Under Stress, USCID Conference, Boise Idaho, October 25-27, 2006. AgriMet websites: Pacific Northwest Region: http://www.usbr.gov/pn/agrimet Great Plains Region: http://www.usbr.gov/gp/agrimet/index.cfm US FOREST SERVICE (Fujioka) Chen, S.-C.; Preisler, H.; Benoit, J.; Fujioka, F. 2006. Projecting wildland fire severity using RSM simulations with a probability model. In: Proceedings, Conference on Weather Analysis and Forecasting, 2006 October 18-20, Taipei, Taiwan. Preisler, H.K.; Westerling, A.L. 2007. Statistical model for forecasting monthly large wildfire events in Western United States. J. Applied Meteorology and Climatology 46:1020-1030. Roads, J.; Tripp, P.; Juang, H.; Wang, J.; Chen, S.; Fujioka, F. 2007. ECPC/NCEP March 2007 seasonal fire danger forecasts. Experimental long-lead forecasts bulletin 16:1-7. Weise, D.R.; Fujioka, F.M.; Nelson, Jr., R.M. 2005. A comparison of three models of 1-h time lag fuel moisture in Hawaii. Ag. and For. Meteorol. 133:28-39. Yang, Y.; Chen, Y.-L.; Fujioka, F.M. 2005. Numerical simulations of the island-induced circulations over the island of Hawaii during HaRP. Mon. Wea. Rev. 133:3693-3713. UTAH CLIMATE OFFICE Malek, E., Davis. T., Martin, R.S., and Silva, P.J. 2006. Meteorological and environmental aspects of one of the worst national air pollution episodes (January, 2004) in Logan, Cache Valley, Utah, U.S.A. Atmos. Research. 79: 108-122. WESTERN REGION CLIMATE CENTER Kunkel, K.E., K.G. Hubbard, D. Easterling, D. Robinson, and K.T. Redmond (in press). Issues with identification of trends in 20th Century U.S. snowfall. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. Expected 2007. Redmond, K.T., (in revision, 2006). Historic climate variability in the Mojave Desert. In The Mojave Desert: Ecosystem Processes and Sustainability, eds. R.H. Webb, L.F. Fenstermaker, J.S. Heaton, D.L. Hughson, E.V. McDonald, and D.M. Miller, (submitted Dec 2005 to University of Arizona Press). Redmond, K.T. (In press). Climate variability and change as a backdrop for western resource management. Revision submitted June 2005. USDA Pacific Northwest Research Station, Bringing Climate into Natural Resource Management, Conference, May 28-30, 2005, Portland Oregon. Redmond, K.T. (In press). Evaporation and the Hydrologic Budget of Crater Lake, Oregon. Hydrobiologia, final version submitted September 2006, expected 2007. WYOMING WATER RESOURCES DATA SYSTEM & WYOMING STATE CLIMATE OFFICE Gray, S.T., L.J. Graumlich, and J.L. Betancourt. 2007. Annual precipitation in the Yellowstone National Park Region since A.D. 1173. Quaternary Research, 68:18-27. McCabe, G.J., J.L. Betancourt, S.T. Gray, M.A. Palecki, H.G. Hidalgo. 2007. Associations of multi-decadal sea-surface temperature variability with US drought. Quaternary International, in press.

Impact Statements

A pecan study in New Mexico demonstrated losses of $200 to $600 an acre by pecan growers because of a lack of irrigation scheduling using weather or soil-based methods. As a result of this study project, a new study on the development of a simpler method of scheduling irrigations using long term average climate data was started.
Cooperation with faculty from the Oregon State University Department of Veterinary Science has led to research efforts focusing on the effects of weather and climate trends on the development and spread of diseases in livestock (horses and goats) in Oregon.
Web page traffic continues to increase at the Oregon Climate Service. Current access averages 3 million hits and 600,000 page views per month.
BLM continues to operate a national interagency network of nearly 2,000 near-real time solar powered fire weather stations throughout the country. Other participating agencies include: USDA-Forest Service, USDI-Bureau of Indian Affairs, USDI-National Park Service, USDI-U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the National Association of State Foresters.
Accurate high resolution weather forecasts and fuel moisture estimates will enhance fire behavior forecasts. This will improve the prospects for firefighter safety and community protection at the wildland-urban interface. Better seasonal predictions of fire occurrence, especially of large fire events in different regions of the country, will enable federal land managers to make more effective and efficient use of firefighting resources.
Feedback from users of the WRDS-SCO websites has been overwhelmingly positive over the past year, and we continue to receive reports that our data products and services are a tremendous boon to agriculture and natural resource management in the state. The WRDS-SCO websites average nearly 250,000 unique page views each month.

Date of Annual Report: 01/21/2009

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 11/19/2008 - 11/21/2008
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2007 - 09/01/2008

Participants

Michael Anderson, California State Climatologist, California Department of Water Resources, manderso@water.ca.gov, 916.574.2830;
Scott Archer, Senior Air Resource Specialist, USDI-Bureau of Land Management, scott_archer@blm.gov, 303.236.6400;
Andrea Bair, National Weather Service Western Region Office, andrea.bair@noaa.gov, 801.524.5137;
Leonard Coop, Integrated Plant Protection Center, Oregon State University, coopl@science.oregonstate.edu, 541.737.5523;
Jan Curtis, Applied Climate Meteorologist, USDA-NRCS National Water & Climate Center, jan.curtis@por.usda.gov, 503.414.3017;
Nolan Doesken, Colorado State Climatologist, Colorado Climate Center, nolan@atmos.colostate.edu, 970.491.3690;
Laura Edwards, Asst Research Climatologist, Western Regional Climate Center, Laura.Edwards@dri.edu, 775.674.7010;
Francis Fujioka, Research Meteorologist, USDA-Forest Service, ffujioka@fs.fed.us, 951.680.1552;
Robert Gillies, Utah State Climatologist, Utah State University, Robert.Gillies@usu.edu 435.760.8023;
Steven T. Gray, Wyoming State Climatologist, Water Resources Data System, stateclim@wrds.uwyo.edu, 307.766.6659;
Cindy Mathews, Senior Service Hydrologist, NWS-WFO Sacramento, cindy.mathews@noaa.gov, 916.979.3041 Ext 240;
Cynthia Palmer, Climate Focal Point, NWS-WFO Sacramento, cynthia.palmer@noaa.gov, 916.979.3041;
Peter Palmer, AgriMet Program Coordinator, US Bureau of Reclamation, ppalmer@pn.usbr.gov, 208.378.5283;
Ted Sammis, New Mexico State Climatologist, New Mexico State University tsammis@nmsu.edu 575.635.7042;
Gary Sanger, Climate Focal Point, NWS-WFO Hanford, gary.sanger@noaa.gov, 559.584.0583 ext 221;
Nancy Selover, Arizona State Climatologist, Arizona State Climate Office, selover@asu.edu 480.965.0580;
Richard Snyder, Biometeorologist, University of California, Davis, rlsnyder@ucdavis.edu, 530.752.4628;
Joyce Strand, Integrated Pest Management Program, University of California Davis, jfstrand@ucdavis.edu, 530.752.8352;

Brief Summary of Minutes

A brief review of circumstances that lead to the annual meeting being held in Davis rather than Oregon State was provided. The Committee discussed the need for documentation for Committee renewal as the focus of next years meeting. Steve Gray was nominated to be president of the committee. It was agreed that the meeting would be held in California again next year with Lake Tahoe or Asilomar given as possible meeting sites. Jan Curtis, Michael Anderson, and Steve Gray agreed to organize next years meeting location and time. Joyce Strand provided information on the current committee documents.

A discussion of the current state of progress for the formation of a NOAA National Climate Service was held. Jan Curtis and Nolan Doesken provided updates on the status of the potential program.

Accomplishments

Note: a detailed description of accomplishments in 2008 is described in the Word file attached to the Publications section of this report.

Publications

AgACIS has been launched through the NRCS DataMart for USDA internal use. This is part of the ACIS (http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/products/current.html), xmACIS (http://www.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=ilx) (NWS NOWData) backbone. It is expected that these climate resources will be part of the NIDIS (http://www.westgov.org/wga/publicat/nidis.pdf) portal. VIPER (New water supply forecasting tool) summarized at: (ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/downloads/centennial/article3220060925.pdf) New Weather Generated Technology(http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/gem.html) dataset and model (coding) has been released: ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/downloads/climate/gem/GEM_6_States Adjusted wind data has been released: ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/support/climate/wind_daily that contains the follow datasets: ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/support/climate/wind_daily/readme_first.txt - weekly snowpack and drought monitor updates (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/water/drought/wdr.pl); soil narrative climatology: (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/soil-nar.pl); Climate Conservation datasets by county (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/climate-map.html) and as described at: (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/wets_doc.html) Chen, S.-C.; Preisler, H.; Fujioka, F.; Benoit, J.; Roads, J. 2008. Seasonal prediction for wildland fire severity. Third International Symposium on Fire Economics, Planning, and Policy: Common Problems and Approaches. April 29-May 2, 2008, Carolina, Puerto Rico. Coen, J.L.; Fujioka, F.M.; Jones, C.; Riggan, P.J. 2007. The Esperanza Fire: comparison of coupled atmosphere-fire model simulation and FireMapper thermal imaging data. In: Proceedings, Seventh Symposium on Fire and Forest Meteorology, 2007 October 23-25, Bar Harbor, Maine. http://ams.confex.com/ams/7firenortheast/techprogram/paper_127443.htm Esteban, M.A.; Chen, Y.-L. 2008. The impact of trade wind strength on precipitation over the windward side of the island of Hawaii. Monthly Weather Review 136: 913-928. Lii, K.S.; Chen, S; Huang, S.; Fujioka, F.M.. 2007. Spatial/temporal characteristics of air quality prediction errors in the Bluesky modeling framework. In: Proceedings, Seventh Symposium on Fire and Forest Meteorology, 2007 October 23-25, Bar Harbor, Maine. http://ams.confex.com/ams/7firenortheast/techprogram/paper_127384.htm Preisler H.; Chen, S.-C.;.Benoit, J.; Fujioka, F.;.Westerling, A. 2008: Wildland fire probabilities estimated from weather model-deduced monthly mean fire danger indices. International Journal of Wildland Fire 17: 305-316 Roads, J.; Tripp, P.; Juang, H.M.H.; Wang, J.; Chen, S.; Fujioka, F. 2007. Fire danger applications of NCEP's downscaled CFS forecasts. In: Proceedings, Seventh Symposium on Fire and Forest Meteorology, 2007 October 23-25, Bar Harbor, Maine. http://ams.confex.com/ams/7firenortheast/techprogram/paper_124515.htm Weise, D.R.; Chen, S.C.; Riggan, P.J.; Jones, C.; Butler, B.W.; Fujioka, F.M. 2007. Using high-resolution weather data to predict fire spread using the FARSITE simulator--a case study in Calilfornia chaparral. In: Proceedings, Seventh Symposium on Fire and Forest Meteorology, 2007 October 23-25, Bar Harbor, Maine. http://ams.confex.com/ams/7firenortheast/techprogram/paper_126873.htm Yang, Y.; Chen, Y.-L. 2008. Effects of terrain heights and sizes on island-scale circulations and rainfall for the island of Hawaii. Monthly Weather Review 136: 120-146. McCabe, G.J., J.L. Betancourt, S.T. Gray, M.A. Palecki, H.G. Hidalgo. 2008. Associations of multi-decadal sea-surface temperature variability with US drought. Quaternary International, 188:31-40. J. C. Kallestad, J. G. Mexal, T. W. Sammis and R. Heerema. 2008. Development of a Simple Irrigation Scheduling Calendar for Mesilla Valley Pecan Growers HortTechnology 18(4) 714-725. Juming Wang, Ted W. Sammis, and D. R. Miller. 2008. Eddy covariance measurements of crop water uses: the energy closure problem and potential solutions. In. Agricultural Water Management Research Trends Nova Science Publishers Inc , NY. Pages 1-7 Holmén, B., D. Miller, A. Hiscox, W. Yang, J. Wang, T. Sammis and R.Bottoms. 2007. Near-source particulate emissions and plume dynamics from agricultural field operations. Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry. 59 (2):117-134. Wang, Junming, April L. Hiscox, David. R. Miller, and Ted W. Sammis. 2008.A Dynamic Lagrangian, Field-Scale Model of Dust Dispersion from Agriculture Tilling Operations. ASABE Transaction. Transactions of the ASABE 51(5) 1763-1774. Moller, Alan and Gillies, Robert. 2008. Utah Climate 2nd Edition, Utah State University Publication Design and Production

Publications Attachment:

Attachment

Impact Statements

An economic report released by NRCS Chief, Arlen Lancaster (17 Nov 2008) identified the cost benefit to expense ratio of the SNOTEL network to the Agriculture Community and to all stakeholders that make use of water supply forecasts. It showed that at a minimum, a four times savings is realized by this program (much higher savings in many cases).
An irrigator in southern Idaho reported pumping energy savings ranging from $10 to $30 per acre annually on irrigated potatoes after he started using AgriMet weather data to schedule his irrigations. He reported total annual power savings between $14-$17,000 annually over his 1400 acres.
Another irrigator in eastern Idaho reported increases in his potato yield and quality when he started using AgriMet data for irrigation scheduling. His yield increased 15%, resulting in an increased revenue of $60,000 over his 300 acres.
A new modeling tool for fire specialists in Hawaii provides downloadable high resolution weather predictions for use with the FARSITE fire behavior prediction system. This tool was adapted to Hawaii conditions from a modeling system that the unit first developed for use in California. Fire behavior specialists will now be able to predict fire behavior for incidents where high resolution fuel maps are available.
The pecan study demonstrated loss of $200 to $600 an acre by pecan growers because of a lack of irrigation scheduling using weather or soil based methods. The Pecanigator is being evaluated to see if its use will save money.

Date of Annual Report: 12/17/2009

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 11/17/2009 - 11/19/2009
Period the Report Covers: 10/01/2008 - 09/01/2009

Participants

Michael Anderson, California State Climatologist, California Department of Water Resources, manderso@water.ca.gov, 916.574.2830; Scott Archer, Senior Air Resource Specialist, USDI-Bureau of Land Management, scott_archer@blm.gov, 303.236.6400; Leonard Coop, Integrated Plant Protection Center, Oregon State University, coopl@science.oregonstate.edu, 541.737.5523; Jan Curtis, Applied Climate Meteorologist, USDA-NRCS National Water & Climate Center, jan.curtis@por.usda.gov, 503.414.3017; Nolan Doesken, Colorado State Climatologist, Colorado Climate Center, nolan@atmos.colostate.edu, 970.491.3690;
Francis Fujioka, Research Meteorologist, USDA-Forest Service, ffujioka@fs.fed.us, 951.680.1552;
Robert Gillies, Utah State Climatologist, Utah State University, Robert.Gillies@usu.edu, 435.760.8023;
Stephen T. Gray, Wyoming State Climatologist, Water Resources Data System, stateclim@wrds.uwyo.edu, 307.766.6659;
Sam McCown, NCDC Representative, Sam.Mccown@noaa.gov;
Peter Palmer, AgriMet Program Coordinator, US Bureau of Reclamation, ppalmer@pn.usbr.gov, 208.378.5283;
Kelly Redmond, Research Climatologist, Western Regional Climate Center, Kelly.Redmond@dri.edu 775.674.7011;
Ted Sammis, New Mexico State Climatologist, New Mexico State University tsammis@nmsu.edu 575.635.7042;
Lee Sommers, AES Administrative Adviser, Colorado State University, Lee.Sommers@colostate.edu 970.491.1421;

Brief Summary of Minutes

The meeting was held in the National Weather Service Monterey Weather Forecast Office Conference Room. David Reynolds, Meteorologist-In-Charge at the Office hosted the meeting in coordination with Michael Anderson. The group met this year to discuss activities of the committee members and discuss options for extending committee activity for another five years. Discussion focused on including climate change in the objectives of the group and discussions on what actions the committee can take as a coordinating committee in light of progress of national legislation for a National Climate Service. An example of such activity is the new consortium for spatial mapping that will be working with Chris Daly on PRISM products. A subcommittee headed up by Stephen Gray will draft up the documents for extending committee activity for another five years and circulate to the committee at large for approval. Michael Anderson agreed to write up the annual report for this year. An invited presentation on forecasting potential burn dates for Fort Ord was presented by XX from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and colleague of Francis Fujioka.

Minutes Attachment:

Attachment

Accomplishments

Natural Resources Conservation Service - National Water and Climate Center http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/climate/. Water and Climate Monitoring. There is an on-going effect to modernize the SNOTEL sites with additional sensors (e.g. soil moisture, radiometer) and to convert manual snow courses into automated SNOTEL sites. We have developed a new Basin analysis tool that derives optimal placement of future SNOTEL sites. This will be demonstrated at the 2010 meeting of WERA-102. Accomplishments 1)Add additional SCAN sites and improving their maintenance (accessibility); 2) Added additional SNOTEL sites; 3) Constructed a new Master Station at Dugway, UT for meteor burst reception of SNOTEL telemetry improving acquisition of data; 4) Working on a West wide Surface Water Supply Index (SWSI) in support of NIDIS; 5) Revamped NRCS Standards and Specification for snow survey and sensor equipment; 6) Made AgACIS accessible to the public. Investments for the future: Contracts with Cornell University AgACIS, Oregon State University PRISM, Portland State - GIS/Web Page improvement, Portland State Hydrological Modeling, ARS (Boise) Hydrological Modeling, University of Alaska Fluidless Pillows Testing. New IT equipment - electronic Maintenance Facility new calibration equipment USDI Bureau of Reclamation - AgriMet is the Bureau of Reclamation's network of automated weather stations for agricultural consumptive water use modeling. The program encompasses agricultural areas in the Pacific Northwest region (the states of Idaho, Washington, Oregon, western Montana and portions of northern California, Nevada, Utah and western Wyoming) as well as central and eastern Montana in Reclamations Great Plains region. AgriMet provides timely crop water use information to a variety of customers, including federal and state agencies, irrigation districts, agricultural consultants, county extension agents, university researchers, and individual farmers and irrigators. The information is used to help irrigators apply the right amount of water to their crops at the right time. Potential program benefits include conservation of water and power resources, improved agricultural production, reductions in soil erosion, and improvements in surface and ground water quality. The AgriMet program consists of the following components: -In the Pacific Northwest Region: A network of 69 automated weather stations, and three stations operated by the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory that provide the data required for crop water use modeling. -In the Great Plains Region: A network of 21 automated weather stations. -A satellite telemetry and downlink system, shared with the Hydromet program. -A set of computer programs for data quality control and crop consumptive water use modeling. -An information dissemination system, including a home page on the World Wide Web and publication in local agricultural newspapers. Primary AgriMet sponsorship continues to be coordinated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Additional sponsorships and cooperating users include Bonneville Power Administration, other public and private electric utilities, irrigation districts, state land grant universities, Cooperative Extension Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Agricultural Research Service, and other state and local agricultural and water resource organizations. Operation and maintenance costs are cost-shared through sponsorship agreements with participating entities. USDI Bureau of Land Management - BLM continues to operate a national interagency network of nearly 2,200 near-real time solar powered fire weather stations throughout the country. Other participating agencies include: USDA-Forest Service, USDI-Bureau of Indian Affairs, USDI-National Park Service, USDI-U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the National Association of State Foresters. All stations have shielded ambient temperature/relative humidity, tipping bucket liquid precipitation, 20 ft wind speed/direction, and fuel temperature/moisture. Most also have solar radiation, and many have soil temperature/moisture. On a case-by-case basis, we are able to modify for 10 m winds, and to add other sensors (such as optical measurement of aerosols). BLM has developed a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), an online shared database containing documentation of annual calibration and maintenance of each automated weather station operated by the wildland fire community. Currently CMMS is not available to the public, but is used internally. A description of minimum sensor maintenance schedules is available at <http://www.fs.fed.us/raws/book/NFEScatalog/nfescatalog.shtml> Recent RAWS data are available via several NWS Forecast Offices, ROMAN, and MesoWest websites. All data are available from the Western Regional Climate Center website (http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/wraws/). WRCC also provides meta data and statistical analysis tools. In response to an inquiry at the WERA-102 meeting, Wind Speed data represent a 10 minute average prior to data transmission (based on 120 or more samples) and Wind Peak (Gust) data represent a maximum value collected during the previous 60 minutes (based on 720 or more samples). A description of fire weather station standards (including RAWS) is available at <http://www.raws.dri.edu/documents/NFDRS_final_revmay05.pdf> and <http://www.fs.fed.us/raws/standards/Weather_station_standards_rev08_2009_FINAL.pdf> In addition, BLM has been providing limited assistance to the CoCoRaHS Program (http://www.cocorahs.org/) by providing 4 in plastic rain gauges for use by rural ranchers in order to obtain more precipitation information on the range lands. Depending on resources, BLM is interested in expanding their involvement. USDA Forest Service Accomplishments include: a) We established and monitored six remote automatic weather stations in a limited area of the San Jacinto Mountains to the west of Palm Springs, California, to study weather patterns that affect fire potential and fire behavior there. This is where the Esperanza Fire in 2006 resulted in five firefighter fatalities, and produced burn patterns that have been difficult to model. Data from the network will be used to evaluate mesoscale simulations with an innermost grid spacing of one km. (Objective 1) b) We co-hosted a weather modeling workshop with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Experimental Climate Prediction Center that drew scientists from the US and the international weather modeling community. The workshop focused exclusively on the suite of spectral models developed by the National Weather Service. Model applications range from short-term mesoscale forecasting to seasonal regional forecasting, both of which find use in wildland fire management. (Objective 3) c) We refined the Hawaii Fire Danger Rating System by upgrading both the hardware and software that runs the system. The system relies on high resolution weather forecasts, a modified version of the National Fire Danger Rating System, and a web GIS forecast map server. The changes were designed to increase online performance, especially when multiple users access the system at the same time. (Objectives 3, 4) Western Region Climate Center-The Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC), housed at Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, is one of six NOAA Regional Climate Centers, and serves the 11 western states, Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. The WRCC has contributed to the WERA-102 objectives through these activities: 1. Coordinate collection and dissemination of weather and climate data and information in the western U.S. and serve as a forum for discussion of related issues. 2. Identify weather and climate issues and support research related to agriculture and natural resources especially in the West. 3. Promote access to, and use of, weather- and climate-based products in order to improve monitoring and decision making related to agriculture and natural resources issues (e.g.; drought, fire, water supply). 4. Coordinate the development of new climatological analysis technologies such as remote sensing and geographic information systems. Wyoming- The Wyoming Water Resources Data System (WRDS; http://www.wrds.uwyo.edu/) and Wyoming State Climate Office (SCO; http://www.wrds.uwyo.edu/wrds/wsc/wsc.html) are the single largest providers of water and climate-related data in the state. Housed within the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering at the University of Wyoming, WRDS and the SCO are funded primarily through grants from the Wyoming Water Development Commission. The WRDS-SCO office provides direct support to Wyoming agriculture in a variety of ways, ranging from the development of enhanced drought-monitoring products to the online dissemination of water and climate data. WRDS and the SCO also support Wyoming agriculture in a more general sense by assisting in the development of the State Water Plan and helping to coordinate long-term climate and hydrologic monitoring efforts throughout the region. A sampling of products from WRDS and the SCO can be found at: http://www.wrds.uwyo.edu/wrds/wsc/dtf/drought.html http://www.wrds.uwyo.edu/wrds/climatological.html Colorado- The following is a summary of work performed at the Colorado Climate Center during the past year that is contributing to the goals and objectives of this technical coordinating committee. Continued operation of historic Fort Collins weather station with 120 years of uninterrupted climate data collection including evaporation, soil temperatures and solar radiation. Also continued ongoing climate data continuity measurements with multiple sensors for temperature, humidity, precipitation and snowfall. Continued the operation of the 60+ station Colorado Agricultural Meteorological Network (CoAgMet). A combination of negative factors have converged this year to reduce the available resources to manage and maintain CoAgMet. We are currently working on a downsizing strategy but also seeking new funding partners to support this important network. Through a contract with the North Platte Roundtable and Colorados Interbasin Compact Commission, three new CoAgMet stations were installed in 2009 in the high elevation hay meadow environments of North Park, Colorado. This is our first opportunity to closely monitor climate factors affecting mountain meadow evapotranspiration. Continued the steady expansion of the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network (CoCoRaHS). By December 2009 CoCoRaHS will be active in all 50 states and has become the largest single source of daily precipitation measurements in the U.S. Spawned by WERA102, in 2008 the Western Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors approved a new coordinating committee, WERA1012, to foster cooperation in improving volunteer networks for climate observations. Our first meeting was held in May 2009 in Estes Park, Colorado with 25 people attending including several National Weather Service representatives. Out of this effort, several action teams were formed looking at topics such as training, data quality and precipitation gauge comparisons. A committee to begin planning for a 125th anniversary of the NWS Cooperative Network was also convened. Continued ongoing collaborations with the National Weather Service, Regional Climate Centers and the National Climatic Data Center to maintain and enhance the NWS Cooperative Network as a backbone climate monitoring network. Currently working on Co-op Network requirements for state climate monitoring needs. The first new modernized Historical Climate Network stations (HCN-M) were installed in Colorado during fall 2009. Climate change has become a routine issue now for many of our activities. We launched a new Climate Trends Website for Colorado in late 2009 that utilizes only the best and longest climate data available from regions of Colorado. No long term data were perfectly complete and homogeneous for their entire period of record, but this was the best available data going back 100 years or more. From drought preparation to agricultural operations, better knowledge of evapotranspiration and soil moisture is needed. We continue to work to improve monitoring and communication of ET data to support these needs. The Colorado Climate Center is now leading the National Integrated Drought Information Systems (NIDIS) Upper Colorado River Basin Pilot Project with the specific goal of improving monitoring, awareness and historical perspective of drought. We are working with various stakeholders and the NIDIS Drought Portal developers to improve access to appropriate climate and water supply information. The Colorado Climate Center continues to strive to support, maintain and enhance the Colorado Agricultural Meteorological network (CoAgMet) despite reduced resources. We continue to widely promote access to and participation in the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network (CoCoRaHS) as a low-cost, low technology approach to high resolution community-scale precipitation monitoring. CoCoRaHS data are now being accessed and utilized by a growing mix of federal, state, local, research and business agencies and organizations who are affected by the magnitude and variability of precipitation. We continue the process of developing GIS capabilities for the Colorado Climate Center. This effort is now combined with our role in the Upper Colorado River Basin Pilot Project. We are gaining experience in combining data (so for, just precipitation) from diverse sources (NWS Co- op, ASOS, SNOTEL CoAgMet, CoCoRaHS, the U.S. Climate Reference network and soon RAWS). We have recently begun producing weekly GIS maps that will be distributed through the U.S. Drought Portal. We are now feeding daily CoCoRaHS data to the National Weather Service in KML format so they can integrate our data resources into their GIS climate mapping efforts. We continue exploring ET mapping using CoAgMet and RAWS data along with satellite. We are interested in adding ET forecast products derivable from NWS forecast models, but do not yet have sponsors or capability for this work. New Mexico-Because the Western United States cover a large area, it is difficult to install automated weather stations in all the different climate zones throughout these states and to maintain a good database of complete temperature and other climatic variable data from those stations. Consequently, the major limitation of the expanded use of growing degree day (GDD) driven models for insect control, crop development and irrigation scheduling models is accurate climate data availability in real time with a serial complete databases that is on a user friendly Computer graphics interface (CGI) on the internet. Missing data for even one day can cause a missing calculation in the GDD models. Also, because the stations are automated it is essential to have an interpolation software that replaces bad data with good estimates of the real values. The standard quality control software (QC) involves the use of multiple stations where a stations data is compared against the data from neighboring stations. Forecast data exists from several agencies. The National Weather Service (NWS) provides a Real- Time Mesoscale Analysis (RTMA) that is a gridded analysis of the meteorological variables. The model produces a 5 km grid of data over the entire United States for temperature, dew point, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, and sky cover for every hour up to 5 days in the future. The RTMA on the NWS web site has interpolated data to a finer grid (1 km). This interpolated data can be obtained by a user by entering a latitude and longitude or selecting a map location and has the potential to replace measured or bad data. Oregon-Hire of Philip Mote as Director of Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, there is no direct replacement for George Taylor, previous Oregon State Climatologist. Several substantial new grants further fund development of virtual weather data for disease risk modeling and mapping, with on-farm validation research in numerous cropping systems including Potatoes in SE Washington, Hops, grapes and grass seed in W. Oregon, tree fruits in Mid-Columbia and Milton- Freewater Oregon, and wine grapes, table and raisin grapes in Central California. Several new web-based products are expected including My Pest Homepage where an end-user can configure their own actual and virtual weather stations, pest and disease risk models, and other custom settings. PRISM to be used for hourly weather data estimation for the first time in 2 of these projects. Reported error rates for various forecast types (evolving Fox Weather LLC system and NWS Digital Forecast system), as compared to nearby station-based virtual weather data. With further development, both types of data show promise for creation of virtual weather stations. New programming that displays regional disease risk outputs in a Google map interface, allowing plant biosecurity and invasion species specialists to scan entire states and regions for weather conditions conducive to disease. For example the system was tested for the NE US to predict tomato-potato late blight, which was in outbreak this past growing season. Applications in supporting invasive species trapping and epidemiological research using PRISM and weather based degree-day maps, used by APHIS PPQ and NPDN (National Plant Diagnostic Network). With these maps, APHIS PPQ is supporting trapping programs for over a dozen species across the W. US. At Ted Sammis' request, IPPC has added the NMSU pecan nut casebearer phenology model to the http://uspest.org/wea website, to be tested in NM and Texas. California- Over the past year the California State Climate Office has been involved in a variety of projects and collaborations that apply to this technical coordinating committee. The efforts are in the areas of design hydrology, evapotranspiration forecasting, and extreme precipitation monitoring. In partnership with state and federal agencies, an update of Californias design hydrology is underway. Precipitation depth-duration-frequency data is being updated with the Department of Water Resources (DWR) Bulletin 195 as well as with the NOAA Atlas 14 product. The DWR Bulletin 195 did not get published online in 2009 as expected due to delays in the internal review process. The NOAA Atlas 14 product is currently scheduled for completion in 2010 with the release of an online Geographical Information System product. Information from these products will be used in efforts to update the design runoff hydrology for California. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working with DWR to produce frequency based runoff hydrograph information for the Central Valley to support floodplain mapping and flood management projects. The U.S. Geological Survey has begun work on updating equations for frequency-based hydrology for ungaged streams in the state. A web-based Geographical Information System product is expected in the next three years. Work continued this year on expanding the evapotranspiration (ET) forecast developed in a project that included the partnership of the State Climatologist, Professor Rick Snyder from UC Davis and the Sacramento Weather Forecast Office (WFO) to the rest of the WFOs serving California. This five-day ET forecast is based on existing gridded forecast variables currently produced by the WFOs. Using a routine developed by Professor Snyder, the gridded variables are used to compute an estimate of potential ET for the next five days. Values are compared with the regional California Irrigation Management Information Service (CIMIS) gages in the region. The forecast is currently available on web pages of the Sacramento and Hanford WFOs. A new project was launched in 2008 to begin the deployment of weather monitoring equipment to assist in the forecasting and monitoring of extreme precipitation conditions in California. The project is a partnership effort between DWR, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and NOAAs Earth Systems Research Laboratory (ESRL). Three types of instrumentation are to be deployed in this project: GPS- Met (water vapor), soil moisture, and vertically pointing radar (freezing level). Deployment of the instruments will occur over a five-year period. In addition, NOAAs ESRL will develop decision support material for quantitative precipitation forecasting that utilizes data from the new instruments. Data from the new instruments will also be disseminated via DWRs California Data Exchange Center operational database. The first two freezing level radar have been deployed in 2009 and sites for the first 9 GPS-Met stations have been selected. Candidate sites for the first 8 soil moisture monitoring sites have been selected but have not been installed. As part of this effort a workshop is being planned for scientists involved in soil moisture monitoring in California to compare methods and equipment and determine the most efficient way to install this network while taking advantage of other soil moisture monitoring activities in the state. Water year 2009 was the third consecutive dry year for California. The continued development and evolution of drought conditions in the state have necessitated the generation of data products for the general public as well as local, state, and federal agencies. These products are being made available to the general public via the website: http://www.drought.water.ca.gov. Included in these products are regular updates of drought conditions and contingency plans for a dry 2010. In general, dissemination of climate information from the office occurs via web page, phone, fax, email and print. In collaboration with Western Region Climate Center is underway to expand the capabilities of the State Climate Office to process and depict data from multiple networks such as the California Data Exchange Center and the California Irrigation Management Information Service. The tools are part of the SC-ACIS program at the Regional Climate Centers. More details on the accomplishments are included in the attachment to the minutes.

Publications

Kennedy, A. M., D. C. Garen, and R. W. Koch (2009). The association between climate teleconnection indices and Upper Klamath seasonal streamflow: Trans-Niño Index. Hydrological Processes, 23, 973-984. Pagano, T. C., D. C. Garen, T. R. Perkins, and P. A. Pasteris (2009). Daily updating of operational statistical seasonal water supply forecasts for the western U.S. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 45(3), 767-778. Perkins, T. R., T. C. Pagano, and D. C. Garen (2009). Innovative operational seasonal water supply forecasting technologies. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 64(1), 15A-17A. Data Quality Control and Assurance Procedures for Reclamations AgriMet Weather Station Network. April, 2009, published in the proceedings of the Western Snow Conference, 2009. AgriMet: Reclamations Pacific Northwest Evapotranspiration Network, Manuscript submitted and accepted for presentation and publication at the Irrigation Association 2009 Irrigation Show and conference proceedings. Dolling, K., Chu, P.-S., and Fujioka, F. 2009: Natural variability of the Keetch-Byram Drought Index in the Hawaiian Islands. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 18:459-475. Fujioka, F.M.; Gill, A.M.; Viegas, D.X.; Wotton, B.M. 2009: Fire danger and fire behavior modeling systems in Australia, Europe, and North America. Wildland Fires and Air Pollution, A. Bytnerowicz (ed.). Developments in environmental science, 8. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 469-497. Yang, Y., Chen, Y.-L., and Fujioka, F.M., 2008: Effects of trade-wind strength and direction on the leeside circulations and rainfall of the island of Hawaii. Monthly Weather Review, 136:4799-4818. Fujioka, F, 2008: Fire weather technology for fire agrometeorology operations. Proc., Management of natural and environmental resources for sustainable agricultural development, R. Stefanski and P. Pasteris (eds.), February 13-16, 2006, Portland, OR. World Meteorological Organization, WMO/TD No. 1428, Washington, D.C., 193-202. De Melo-Abreu, J.P, Ahmed, D.M., Andrews, P.L., Bastos, T.X., DeGroot, W.J., Fleming, Richard, Fleming, Robert, Fujioka, F., Goldammer, J.G., Govind, A., Harrison, J., Keenan, T., Price, D., Statheropoulos, M., Stigter, K.,. and Wain, A., 2008: Applications of meteorology to forestry and non-forest trees. www.agrometeorology.org/fileadmin/insam/repository/gamp_chapt8.pdf, WMO/CAgM Guide to Agricultural Meteorology Practices, Chapter 8, 107 p. Frakes, B., I. Aston, J. Burke, M. Britten, D. Pillmore, S. Ostermann-Kelm, R. Daly, C. Jean, M. Tercek, S. Gray, and T. Kittel. 2010. Rocky Moutain Climate Protocol: Climate Monitoring in the Greater Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain Inventory and Monitoring Networks. Natural Resource Report NPS/XXXX/NRR2010/XXX, National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado, In press. Cleary, K., S.T. Gray and others. 2009. Assessment of Groundwater Resources in the Green River Basin, Wyoming. Wyoming Water Development Commission, Cheyenne, Wyoming. In Press. Gray, S., C. Andersen, I. Burke. 2009. Assessing the Future of Wyomings Water Resources: Adding Climate Change to the Equation. William D. Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming. 28 pp. In press. Kittel, T., S. Ostermann-Kelm, B. Frakes, M. Tercek, S. Gray, and C. Daly. 2009. A Framework for Climate Analysis and Reporting for the Greater Yellowstone (GRYN) and Rocky Mountain (ROMN) Networks: A Report from the GRYN/ROMN Climate Data Analysis Workshop. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/GRYN/NRR2009/XXX. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. In press. Gray, S.T., C.M. Nicholson, and M.D. Ogden. 2009. Greater Yellowstone Network: Climate of 2008. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/GRYN/NRR2009/XXX. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. In press. Gray, S.T., C.M. Nicholson, T. Dietrich, and S. Laursen. 2009. Greater Yellowstone Network: Climate of 2007. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/GRYN/NRR2009/076. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. Aziz, O.A., G.A. Tootle, S.T. Gray and T.C. Piechota. 2010. Identification of Pacific Ocean sea surface temperature influences on Colorado River Basin snowpack. Water Resources Research, In press. Barnett, F.A., T.A. Watson, G.A. Tootle and S.T. Gray. 2010. Upper Green River Basin (USA) streamflow reconstructions. Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, In press. Gray, S.T. and G.J. McCabe. 2009. Combined water balance and tree-ring approaches to understanding the potential hydrologic effects of climate change on the Yellowstone River. Water Resources Research, In press. Jackson, S.T., J.L. Betancourt, R.K. Booth and S.T. Gray. 2009. Ecology and the ratchet of events: Climate variability, niche dimensions, and species distributions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi:10.1073/pnas.0901644106. Jackson, S.T., S.T. Gray and B. Shuman. 2009. Paleoecology and resource management in a dynamic landscape: Case studies from the Rocky Mountain headwaters. The Paleontological Society Papers, 15:61-80. Kelleners, T., V.B. Paige, S.T. Gray. 2009. Measurement of the dielectric properties of Wyoming soils using electromagnetic sensors. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 73:1626-1637, doi:10.2136/sssaj2008.0361. Watson, T.A., F.A. Barnett, S.T. Gray and G.A. Tootle. 2009. Reconstructed stream flows for the headwaters of the Wind River, Wyoming, USA. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 45:224-236. Wang, J., T. W. Sammis, V. P. Gutschick, M. Gebremichael, D. R. Miller. 2009. Sensitivity Analysis of the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL). ASABE Transactions. 52 (3):801-811. Wang, S.-Y., R. R. Gillies, J. Jin, and L. E. Hipps, Recent rainfall cycle in the Intermountain Region as a quadrature amplitude modulation from the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Geophysical Research Letters, Vol:36 Wang, S.-Y., R. R. Gillies, E. S. Takle, and W. J. Gutowski Jr.,, Evaluation of precipitation in the Intermountain Region simulated by the NARCCAP regional climate models, Geophysical Research Letters, Vol:36 Wang, S.-Y., R. R. Gillies, L. E. Hipps, and J. Jin, A transition-phase teleconnection of the Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation, Climate Dynamics, in press Wang, S.-Y., R. R. Gillies, J. Jin, and L. E. Hipps, Coherence between the Great Salt Lake Level and the Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation, Journal of Climate, in press Wang, S.-Y., L. E. Hipps, R. R. Gillies, X. Jiang, and A. L. Moller, Circumglobal teleconnection and early summer rainfall in the US Intermountain West, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, in press Gillies, R. R. Estimated changes in the winter precipitation regime over Utah (August 24, 2009), Melbourne, Australia, 6th International Scientific Conference on the Global Energy and Water Cycle Gillies, R. R. Linked Micromap Plots for Evaluating Trends in Multi-Pollutant Deposition (October 06, 2009), Saratoga Springs, NY, NADP 2009 Annual Meeting and Scientific Symposium Gillies, R. R. Evaluation of precipitation in the Intermountain Region simulated by the NARCCAP regional climate models (August 24, 2009), Melbourne, Australia, 6th International Scientific Conference on the Global Energy and Water Cycle Gillies, R. R. Evaluation of precipitation in the Intermountain Region simulated by the NARCCAP regional climate models (March 03, 2009), Logan, Utah, Spring Runoff Conference Gillies, R. R. Recent rainfall cycle in the Intermountain Region as a quadrature amplitude modulation from the Pacific decadal oscillation (March 03, 2009), Logan, Utah, Spring Runoff Conference Gillies, R. R. The Pacific QDO as a natural predictor for the Great Salt Lake elevation. (November 23, 2009), Silver Springs, MD, Conference Gillies, R. R. The mysterious coherence between the Great Salt Lake and the Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation. (October 26, 2009), , Monterey, CA, NOAA's 34th Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop Gillies, R. R. Coherence between the Great Salt Lake and the Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation. (October 09, 2009), Boulder, CO, 64th Annual Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Hydrologic Research Center, Boulder

Impact Statements

An economic report released by NRCS Chief, Arlen Lancaster (17 Nov 2008) identified the cost benefit to expense ratio of the SNOTEL network to the Agriculture Community and to all stakeholders that make use of water supply forecasts. It showed that at a minimum, a four times savings is realized by this program (much higher savings in many cases).
An irrigator in southern Idaho reported pumping energy savings ranging from $10 to $30 per acre annually on irrigated potatoes after he started using AgriMet weather data to schedule his irrigations. He reported total annual power savings between $14-$17,000 annually over his 1400 acres.
Another irrigator in eastern Idaho reported increases in his potato yield and quality when he started using AgriMet data for irrigation scheduling. His yield increased 15%, resulting in an increased revenue of $60,000 over his 300 acres.
AgriMet is being used as the source of ET information for residential lawn Smart Controllers in several locations in the Northwest. These controllers automatically apply only the water needed to replace consumptive use. Since most homeowners overirrigate their lawn, use of Smart Controllers reduces water use.
The R&D performed by this Forest Service research unit will result in technology that increases the effectiveness of federal, state and local fire management agencies by providing better forecasts and analyses of fire potential. The web GIS application accommodates users with a variety of needs in fire weather and fire danger prediction.
Feedback from users of the WRDS-SCO websites continues to be overwhelmingly positive. We are also seeing more and more requests for additional products and services.
The CoAgMet network and the monitoring of evapotranspiration rates and crop consumptive use is contributing directly to administration of the Arkansas River interstate compact in southeastern Colorado. CoCoRaHS has now become the single largest source for readily accessible and GIS compatible daily manual precipitation data in the U.S. It is supplementing and enhancing the nations primary observing networks. A dollar value is hard to assign, but CoCoRaHS data are being routinely used by NOAA, USDA, and many other agencies and organizations who need accurate and timely precipitation data. Applications include flood forecasting andv weather and water supply verification.
The economic impact of creating a user friendly IPM site for the pecan nutcase bearer in New Mexico based on forecast climate data has the potential to save $7,000,000 with a benefit cost ratio of 41. The remote sensing web site will have an impact on water management of Pecans and almonds in New Mexico, California, and Texas. Under water shortage condition, the site can monitor the stress level of the trees and minimize yield loss and death of trees.