The Nevada Drought Early Warning System (NV DEWS) was established in 2016 and resulted from discussions between NIDIS and activities and recommendations resulting from Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval’s Nevada Drought Forum. The Forum recommended that Nevada work with NIDIS to explore the implementation of new technologies to improve drought monitoring, drought early warning systems and forecasts, and encourage expansion of the USDM to include multiple indicators that accurately represents both rangeland and hydrologic drought. The NV DEWS will join efforts underway by the CA DEWS to support increased drought early warning in the region.
Activities and Resources to Support Drought Early Warning
- Nevada Drought Forum was formed by Governor Brian Sandoval in April 2015 to address water resource challenges related to severe and sustained drought conditions that have affected much of the state. The Forum helps facilitate a statewide dialogue among interested stakeholders and identify best practices for drought policy, preparedness and management.
- Climate Engine is an “on-demand” cloud computing and visualization of climate and remote sensing data resource. Climate Engine enables users to analyze and interact with climate and land surface environmental monitoring datasets in real-time to improve decision making related to drought, water sustainability, agricultural productivity, wildfire, and ecological health.
- Evaporative Demand Drought Index (EDDI) is a drought index that can serve as an indicator of both rapidly evolving “flash” droughts (developing over a few weeks) and sustained droughts (developing over months but lasting up to years). EDDI is being developed and tested in the Nevada DEWS.
- Great Basin Climate Forum Series: In 206 the Great Basin Climate Forum (GBCF) consists of discussions that focus on current climate conditions and how they will impact natural resources and other sectors. It will also kickoff a three-part series to identify key areas of the northwestern Great Basin that are vulnerable to climate variability and climate change, understanding the drivers of that change, and developing a spatially-explicit set of scenario sets to inform decision making on federal, state, county, city and private lands in the region.
- SECURE Water Act Report – Reclamation Climate Change and Water 2016: The Department of Interior (DOI), the Bureau of Reclamation and its state and local partners developed a basin-by-basin report that characterizes the impacts of climate change and details adaptation strategies to better protect major river basins in the West. The report shows several increased risks to western U.S. water resources in the 21st century including a specific chapter on the Truckee River Basin.