Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Strand/California: Worked with University of California researchers on model validation of weather-sensitive spraying of six row-crop worm pests; results will be incorporated in pest management guidelines for next growing season. Implemented model that predicts citrus thrips damage based on weather patterns in February and March. Provided 5-day degree-day forecasts in spring to help cotton farmers determine planting schedules. With the California Tomato Research Institute, collected and disseminated information for Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley farmers for predicting black mold occurrence on processing tomatoes.

Pielke,Doesken/Colorado: Continued active role in Colorado drought monitoring, participating in Colorado Water Availability Task Force. Disseminated results on climate monitoring, research and applications through the Colorado Climate magazine, now in its second year. Coordinated the expansion of the Colorado Agricultural Meteorological Network, originally formed to serve irrigation needs, but gaining interest for odor management and other feedlot and livestock applications. Continued collaboration with the National Weather Service to improve climate data quality and continuity. Involved citizens of all ages in studies of precipitation patterns and hail events through the Community Collaborative Rain and Hail Study (CoCo RaHS; ccc.atmos.colostate.edu/~hail).

Chu/Hawaii: Served on the Water Resources Committee of the Hawaii Drought Council established by the Governor of Hawaii. Concluded a study of the relationships between seasonal fire activity and the Southern Oscillation Index in the state of Hawaii, a joint activity with WCC-102 Forest Service member. Collaborated with the National Weather Service and the Army Corps of Engineers in updating the climatology of rainfall frequency for Hawaii, a project funded by the EPA, the counties of Hawaii, Maui and Kauai, and the Hawaii Coastal Zone Management Program.

Qualls/Idaho: Rebuilding web site to make navigation more intuitive for users of weather and climate data. Worked with University of Idaho Library to make the complete historical record of Idaho Cooperative Observer station data available online (www.uidaho.edu/~climate). Conducting a two-year study to develop methods to detect, delineate, and quantify area of agricultural field burning using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM). Hired postdoctoral research associate to jointly develop methods to model evapotranspiration and other land/atmosphere mass and energy exchanges, using remotely sensed data.

Sammis/New Mexico: Published newsletter for public distribution, covering past, present, and future climate of new Mexico (http://weather.nmsu.edu/news.htm). Developed crop coefficient and irrigation scheduling model for use on the Internet
(http://water-management.nmsu.edu/). Will continue to add spread sheets for irrigation scheduling and improve the web page.

Taylor/Multistate: Worked with NOAA, Forest Service and WRCC to improve procedures to collect and disseminate weather data. Worked with National Weather Service, regional and state climate centers, and the Natural Resource Conservation Service to provide new precipitation intensity-duration-frequency maps. Produced maps for WCC-102 member agency NRCS that show frost dates, growing season, and plant hardiness, in addition to climatological data. Maintained web site that averages 60,000 hits per week.

Jensen/Utah: Reconstructing web site to add new capabilities, new spatial products, and access new database of climatological data. New normal maps based on the period 1971-2000 are being generated for Utah, including monthly maximum, minimum and mean temperatures, and computed reference evapotranspiration. Worked with Bureau of Land Management to monitor climate on Utah rangelands.

Fujioka/Multistate: Concluded a joint study of relationships between seasonal fire activity and the Southern Oscillation Index in the state of Hawaii, with Hawaii WCC-102 member Chu. Partnered with Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey to provide high resolution weather forecasts for California using the MM5 model, for fire danger and smoke dispersion predictions.

Palmer/Multistate: Made major improvements to AgriMet web site to improve access to weather and crop water use information. Continued to incorporate near-real time weather data from AgriMet stations into other data networks to improve timeliness of weather data for a variety of users. Generated crop water use charts for each station each day of the growing season, for 50 crops grown in the Pacific Northwest region.

Pasteris/Multistate: Managed snow data from 1,200 manual snow monitoring courses and 660 remote automatic weather stations in the mountainous West. Expanded soil-climate monitoring stations from 42 to 54 stations covering 32 states. Provided users with near real-time climate and soil moisture and soil temperature information via the Internet (www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/scan). Co-developed a scientific team with the Agricultural Research Service to conduct stochastic weather generation research, in response to high priority stakeholder needs identified at the Watershed Processes National Program Workshop. Partnered in a project to provide comprehensive, consistent precipitation frequency information for all US states and possessions, using new climate analysis and mapping technologies. Collaborators include federal and state agencies, universities, and private organizations.

Redmond/Multistate: Worked with Forest Service and BLM on a siting strategy for remote automatic weather stations in the Great Basin. Provided climatology expertise at fire and climate meeting in Arizona, climate change meeting for state natural resource agencies in California, and regional climate modeling meeting at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Conducted research on inversion variability, climate extremes, and long term variations in climate and hydrologic extremes.