Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

WERA 102 Accomplishments

October 1, 2018 – September 30, 2019

Objective 1.  Collaborate with federal agency climate hubs and centers to highlight their unique roles and leverage limited resources for research activities related to agriculture and resource management in the western U.S.

California: This year California through the Office of the State Climatologist has worked with the US Drought Monitor, the National Weather Service, the California Nevada Applications Program RISA, , the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, United States Geological Survey California Water Science Center, Western Region Climate Center and the National Interagency Drought Information System on a number of projects related to information support to drought/flood emergency response/planning in a warming world.  Collaboration with the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes through the Atmospheric River Research Program has enabled multi-agency efforts like the Atmospheric River Offshore Recon effort to better characterize atmospheric rivers and relevant data initialization for global weather forecast models. Projects like the Airborne Snow Observatory leverage funds from federal, state, and local entities to improve the quantification of snow water equivalent and its spring runoff for resources management.  The State Climatologist also participated in the Research Work Group and Coastal/Oceans Work Group of the Climate Action Team.  The Climate Action Team is a State-level multi-agency collaborative effort to organize state agency response to climate change.  The State Climatologist oversees the Atmospheric River Research Program for California, which was renewed this year.  A collaborative agreement with the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center was initiated this year to explore options in product development and refinement for forecasts and outlooks extending out to a year.  The State Climatologist also joined the steering committee for a San Francisco Bay Area workgroup seeking to collaborate for a coordinated approach to mitigating the impacts of sea-level rise.

Colorado Climate Center:  Related to Objective 1, CCC staff participated in a number of meetings and workshops that involved direct collaboration with federal agencies working on agriculture and resource management in the West.  In January 2019, Colorado state climatologist Russ Schumacher co-organized a workshop on climate at the Colorado Water Congress annual meeting, along with representatives from the state of Colorado and Denver Water.  This workshop included discussions and presentations related to water in the western US, with a focus on the Colorado River.  In April 2019, Russ Schumacher presented at and participated in an Integrated Warning Team workshop hosted by the National Weather Service office in Grand Junction.  The primary topics of this workshop were drought and wildfire, and the workshop included many federal, state, and local agencies.  In September 2019, Russ Schumacher and assistant state climatologist Becky Bolinger participated in a workshop on drought recovery, hosted by NOAA in Boulder.  This workshop involved collaboration and brainstorming with relevant officials on how best to communicate drought amelioration and recovery.  These are just a few examples of the many collaborations that the CCC has with federal, state, and local officials to best communicate useful weather and climate information.

Nevada: The Desert Research Institute (DRI) and Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC) have worked extensively with NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and Climate Program Office. Year three of a project to continue the development of Nevada’s Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) was completed (in collaboration with California). A strategic plan was developed to implement the NIDIS Drought and Wildland Fire Nexus (NDAWN), which defines the needs and challenges of fire managers to effectively utilize drought information and aims to meet those needs and to establish a robust drought and wildland fire decision-support information network. Researchers from WRCC worked closely with fire managers in Nevada and California, where fire managers began implementing the Evaporative Demand Drought Index for real-time operations and seasonal fire danger outlooks.

USBR:  Attended and presented at WERA 102 meeting in Reno, NV to collaborate and share research, inf,ormation and ideas.

Objective 2.  Evaluate monitoring network capabilities to facilitate regional comparison of data to address critical issues in agriculture and natural resources management.

California: This year, California is working within the Department of Water Resources to organize its monitoring programs and develop a strategic plan to obtain sufficient funding and personnel to effectively manage the networks for water resources management.  The networks benefit agriculture through their informing agencies of water conditions that help set priorities for water allocations to multiple sectors, including agriculture.  As part of this effort, the Hydrology and Flood Operations Office is working to rehabilitate its upper watershed weather monitoring network to provide consistent, high-quality data, while minimizing the operations and maintenance time and costs.  A pilot effort was launched this year, providing observing stations for post-fire monitoring of weather conditions to facilitate emergency response and gain additional data to inform post-fire process descriptions.  Budget change proposals were submitted to significantly increase resourcing for surface hydrometeorological monitoring.  A post hazard grant application was initiated to better share and interpret data among agencies involved in post-fire response and recovery.  The Office of the State Climatologist produces an annual report called the Hydroclimate Report that examines precipitation, temperature, snowpack, runoff, and sea-level rise with respect to a warming world and discusses the extremes and events of note from the water year.  The water year 2018 report is delayed and information for the 2019 report is being gathered to hopefully overcome the problems experienced in 2018.

Colorado Climate Center:  Related to objectives 2-4, the CCC continues to manage the Colorado Agricultural Meteorological Network (CoAgMET), which now has 87 stations, many of which are in western Colorado in the Upper Colorado River Basin.  We now are building up a multi-year record of data in the UCRB that informs assessments of agricultural consumptive use.  The US Bureau of Reclamation uses the CoAgMET data along with data from other states in their AgriMet network, along with satellite data and eddy covariance towers, to assess the impact of agriculture on the Colorado River. 

We have also worked to further improve data access and mapping of the CoAgMET data, which are freely available. These data help to support the objectives of WERA-102 to monitor agriculture and resource management in the western US.

Nevada: DRI conducted a study using observations from the Nevada Integrated Climate and Evapotranspiration Network (NICE Net) to validate the National Weather Service Forecast Reference Evapotranspiration (FRET) product. Reference ET is a critical variable to understanding consumptive water use in the West, and forecasts of reference ET could assist water managers and farmers in water conservation efforts. Study results indicate that in general, the FRET offers reasonable forecasts from 1-7 days, and the NICE Net can be used to bias correct the FRET for improved water use estimates.

USBR:  Reclamation continued to assess needs and wish list items for better data monitoring and availability in cooperation with seven different state networks as a collaborative effort for a cohesive ET network. The AgriMet program is also a contributor to the RWIS water information sharing pilot project. Reclamation is also working on a collaborative Science and Technology project with multiple agencies for real-time ET forecasting.

Objective 3.  Promote access to, use of, and further development of monitoring networks and associated value added products to meet the needs of agriculture and resource management in the West.

Arizona:  Jeremy Weiss: This year, Arizona – Jeremy Weiss promoted access to and use of GHCN station temperature data with viticulturists in Arizona and New Mexico. The potential application of the data is in the context of late spring frosts, maximum temperatures during the ripening period, and early autumn frosts, all of which are critical for fruit yield and quality.

California:  In addition to the activities described in Objective 2, the Office of the State Climatologist is working with federal and local partners as well as the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes on the use of monitoring and forecast products to facilitate program efforts like the Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations, Forecast Coordinated Operations, and the California Nevada Drought Early Warning System component of the National Interagency Drought Information System.  In addition, the State Climatologist is working with colleagues in the Department of Water Resources to improve water data service via the implementation of the Open Water Data Initiative passed by the California State Legislature in Assembly Bill 1755. The State Climatologist also provides interviews, and public speaking engagements to meet this objective.  These speaking engagements include the Western States Water Council Workshops aimed at data and forecasting needs for resources management in the west.

Nevada: The WRCC and DRI have several recently developed web applications for climate monitoring to support agriculture and resource management. Many of the products in these applications would not be possible without long-term monitoring networks that support high-quality weather and climate data. The two main web applications include Climate Engine (https://app.climateengine.org/climateEngine) and the California Climate Tracker (https://wrcc.dri.edu/Climate/Tracker/CA/). Presentations from WRCC staff on these tools have been given at a number of large national weather, climate, and wildland fire conferences. Currently, the WRCC is building other state climate trackers to mimic the California Climate Tracker and a snow drought tracker is also in development to address reduced snowpack in the West under a warming climate.

USBR:  Management changes slowed the momentum of web development within the AgriMet program, pending hiring a new programmer. RWIS continues to make strides. Seven new stations were installed in key locations for METRIC coverage. These stations included four in Montana for the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribe with USBR tribal assistance funds for installation and DNRC funds for ongoing maintenance. Two additional stations were installed in E Idaho with funding from the University of Idaho and Idaho Department of Water Resources. The final station was installed with funding from the AgriMet program as a youth outreach project with cadets and staff from the Idaho Youth Challenge Academy.

Objective 4.  Facilitate interagency coordination for data collection and maintenance of monitoring sites in the western U.S.

California:  The Office of the State Climatologist provides technical support and interaction with the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program and Forecast Coordinated Operations facilitating data use, sharing, and coordinated efforts for monitoring site installation, operations, and maintenance in the upper watersheds of the west slope Sierra Nevada in California.  In addition, the State Climatologist works with other local water agencies in the State on projects that include data collection.  The State Climatologist continues to interact with the Earth Systems Research Laboratory on work with the Hydrometeorological Testbed Extreme Precipitation Network.  A new five-year collaborative agreement is working its way through the contracting process.  In addition, work continues on the Advanced Quantitative Precipitation Information Project, a $19 million grant to the 10 Bay Area Counties for improved precipitation observation, forecast, and decision support capabilities for water management.

Nevada: The WRCC provides routine maintenance to weather stations all a,cross the Western U.S. including the NICE Net (https://nicenet.dri.edu/), WRCC stations (https://wrcc.dri.edu/weather/index.html), Community Environmental Monitoring Program (https://cemp.dri.edu/), and stations spread across Hawaii and the Pacific Islands. These data are also housed on WRCC servers. WRCC also maintains the Remote Automated Weather Station (https://r,aws.dri.edu/) database which is heavily used for wildland fire management and operations.  

USBR:  The AgriMet program continues to work wi,th numerous local, state and federal agencies as well as private sector sponsors to provide a cohesive network with high-quality data. This includes site maintenance assistance and data monitoring.