Reports, Assessments and Outlooks: Intermountain West Drought Early Warning System

2015 Snowpack Workshops

In 2015 Western Water Assessment (WWA) and its partners convened a series of one-day workshops in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to help improve the usability of snowpack monitoring information for runoff forecasting, drought early warning, planning and other application. Learn more about these and other WWA workshops.

EDDI: The 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 NIDIS’ Nevada Drought Early Warning System (DEWS).

Wildfire and Drought: Impacts on Wildfire Planning, Behavior and Effects

This was the first explicit drought-fire focused workshop to occur in the western U.S. and allowed for “big picture” consideration of the role drought plays in fire and its impacts on wildfire planning, fire behavior, and post-fire restoration. In this report, we present the opportunities and challenges the workshop participants identified and the impacts of drought on wildfire, as well as identifying next steps in understanding and addressing drought impacts on wildfire. The meeting was held in Boise, Idaho, in October 2015, hosted by NIDIS, the Western Regional Climate Center, California Nevada Applications Program (a NOAA Regional Integrated Science Applications team), the Desert Research Institute, and the National Drought Mitigation Center. Seventeen federal, state, NGO, and academic entities attended, representatives of a broad spectrum of expertise including prescribed fire, wildland fire management, climatology, smoke and air quality, fuels management, fire behavior, drought, and policy.

Western States Drought Coordinators and Emergency Managers Meeting

This July 2015 meeting in Seattle, Washington, brought together for the first time the individuals who serve as the lead coordinator for, or are heavily involved in the coordination of, drought-related activities from the 19 western states represented by the Western Governors Association (WGA). Goals included identifying and addressing drought-related issues that cut across all western states, highlighting where states are working together and how interstate coordination can be improved, and sharing effective strategies, recent lessons learned and case studies of mitigation and response.

Considerations for Climate Change and Variability Adaptation on the Navajo Nation

This report provides foundational information for planning for anticipated and proven challenges from climatic shifts on the Navajo Reservation. It highlights potential and actual climate changes occurring in the Southwest and Four Corners region and presents an example of an adaptation planning and implementation process, applicable to any group facing disruption.