PRISM: The New Climate Mapping Paradigm

The impacts of climate on agriculture have been documented for many years, but only recently has there been an opportunity to view climate impacts on agriculture from a entirely new high resolution spatial perspective. Dr. Chris Daly, developer of the Parameter-elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) and PRISM Group Director, has successfully described how the climate changes with elevation, topographic irregularities, coastal proximity, along with many other physical properties that effect temperature and precipitation. For the past 12 years, NRCS has forged a strong partnership with The PRISM Group at Oregon State University in Corvallis. What makes PRISM unique is the ability for it to fill in data gaps that occur between widely separated weather stations, many of which are located only at lower elevations.

PRISM products includes colorful monthly and annual maps of temperature, precipitation, and an assortment of other parameters at 4.0 kilometer resolution based on the 1961-1990 period averages as well as gridded data that can be imported as a layer in most Geographical Information Systems, including ArcMap. In July 2006, the new PRISM ~800 meter resolution products, based on the latest climate averages period (1971-2000), will be available via the internet at the National Cartographic and Geospatial Center.

In upcoming weeks, we will feature articles about how PRISM is changing the way NRCS manages natural resources, improves agricultural production, and views climate and climate change. Articles will center on how PRISM methodology will help improve the quality of NRCS’ SNOTEL climate data, and help in optimizing the placement of future weather stations that would be used to monitor snowfall, drought, and ultimately the water supplies in the West.
Your contact is Jan Curtis, NRCS applied climatologist, at 503-414-3017.