February 4th, 11:00am – 1:00pm

Summary 

The first virtual training will be ‘Using Forecasts in Drought Planning’.  Attendees will hear what we do and don’t know about weather and streamflow forecasts.  With that knowledge, we can turn forecasts and drought information into action.  

Speakers and Bios

• Becky Bolinger – Becky Bolinger is the Assistant State Climatologist at the Colorado Climate Center, Colorado State University. Her interests include climate variability, climate trends, climate prediction, the hydrologic cycle, water resources, and climate and drought monitoring. She has worked for three different climate centers, has experience with many different climate datasets, and has experience with research and applications in climate. Her expertise and passion is bridging the gap between climate research and decision making applications.
• Brian Domonkos – Brian Domonkos graduated from the University of Maryland from the School of Engineering with a Civil Engineering Degree and a Minor in Meteorology.  His career began with the Snow Survey program as a summer intern prior to graduating from college.  19 years later he continues work in the much loved West-wide Snow Survey Program.
• Justin Derner – Dr. Justin Derner was born and raised on a cattle ranch (ranch was homesteaded in 1878) in the eastern part of the Nebraska Sand Hills and received his degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (B.S.), Oklahoma State University (M.S.), and Texas A&M University (Ph.D.).  Justin is the Research Leader for the USDA-ARS Rangeland Resources & Systems Research Unit in Fort Collins, Colorado where the focus is to develop science-based management strategies that can enhance manager decision-making by improving resiliency and reducing risks for semiarid rangelands in a changing climate. 

Recordings

Resource/Links

Presentation Slides

• Intro Slides and Elements of a Drought Plan
• How Accurate are Forecasts in Colorado – Becky Bolinger
• Water Supply Planning Information Resources and Runoff Projections – Brian Domonkos
• Proactive Drought Management: Putting Tools to Work – Justin Derner

Climate Dashboards

• Intermountain West Climate Dashboard
  • https://wwa.colorado.edu/resources/intermountain-west-climate-dashboard
• The Ranch Drought Monitoring Dashboard
  • https://drought.unl.edu/ranchplan/monitor.aspx

Climate/Weather Tools for Colorado

• Monthly Precipitation Contributions for CO
  • https://climate.colostate.edu/precip_prop.html
• Tool that allows you to see precipitation for different time scales for any county:  The evaporative demand drought index EDDI is updated regularly here:
  • https://psl.noaa.gov/eddi/
  • http://climate.colostate.edu/drought/index.html#evap
  • http://climate.colostate.edu/county_precip_tool.htm
• This climate mapper tool has some great maps for observations, you can also change the Time Scale parameter to future projections:
  • https://climatetoolbox.org/tool/Climate-Mapper

Streamflow Forecasting Tools

• Interactive Charts
  • https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/WCIS/AWS_PLOTS/basinCharts/Proj/PREC/assocHUCco3/state_of_colorado.html
• Colorado Basin-Wide Interactive SNOTEL Graphs
  • https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/co/snow/products/?cid=nrcseprd1432263
• Colorado Water Supply Outlook Reports
  • https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/co/snow/waterproducts/basin/?cid=nrcs144p2_063076
• SNOTEL Interactive Maps
• Daily Water Supply Forecasts
• Water Supply Forecasts Chart/Data