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National Integrated Drought Information System
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Pacific Northwest Drought Early Warning System April Drought & Climate Outlook Webinar
Monday, April 25, 2022 at 11 am - 12 pm PT
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According to the April 19, 2022 U.S. Drought Monitor, 70.2% of the Pacific Northwest Drought Early Warning System (DEWS)
is in drought, with 22.4% of the region in Extreme/Exceptional Drought (D3/D4). While water availability in some areas of Washington and Idaho has improved over the winter months, much of southern and eastern Oregon and portions of Idaho recorded their driest
3-month January-March on record. This webinar will provide more information on the current conditions and outlooks, as well as a presentation on "Linking Drought Drivers to Response Strategies: A Montana Application of the EcoDIVA Tool."
These webinars provide the region's stakeholders and interested parties with timely information on current and developing
drought conditions, as well as climatic events like El Niño and La Niña. Speakers will also discuss the impacts of these conditions on things such as wildfires, floods, disruption to water supply and ecosystems, as well as impacts to affected industries like agriculture,
tourism, and public health.
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Featured Presentations
Climate Recap & Current Conditions
Zach Hoylman | Montana Climate Office
Seasonal Conditions & Climate Outlook
Henry Pai | Northwest River Forecast Center
Linking Drought Drivers to Response Strategies: A Montana Application of the EcoDIVA Tool
Kim Hall | The Nature Conservancy
Ann Schwend | Montana Department of Natural Resources
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Other News & Upcoming Events
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EPA's Creating Resilient Water Utilities (CRWU) initiative is providing a series of free webinars for the Northwest in April and May for water sector utility owners
and operators, as well as other water sector stakeholders. The webinars will focus on identification and implementation of climate change adaptation options,
applying for specific funding for its resilience and adaptation projects,
and training overviews and details on five Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT) Modules.
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Defining Ecological Drought for the Twenty-First Century
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This research paper from 2017 is the basis for the EcoDIVA Tool that will be discussed in the April 25 webinar. The research team developed a novel, integrated
framework for ecological drought that is organized along two dimensions—the components of vulnerability (exposure + sensitivity/adaptive capacity) and a continuum from human to natural factors. The purpose of this framework is to help guide drought researchers
and decision-makers to understand (1) the roles that both people and nature play as drivers of ecosystem vulnerability, (2) that ecological drought’s impacts are transferred to human communities via ecosystem services, and (3) these ecological and ecosystem
service impacts will feed back to both natural and human systems.
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Climate Change Impacts on Atmospheric Rivers
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California, Oregon and Washington are highly dependent on atmospheric rivers (ARs) for their water supply. When ARs fail to materialize, droughts often follow.
Now, a new NOAA study suggests that climate change will likely alter ARs in ways that will make managing water more difficult. High-resolution climate simulations showed decreased future precipitation amounts across many mountainous regions of the western
United States. The study was completed by a team from NOAA’s Physical Sciences Laboratory,
University of Colorado Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Learn
more >
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