Nevada State Climate Office

Transcription

1 Nevada State Climate Office Department of Geography, University of Nevada, Reno

2 NSCO Who are we?

3 NSCO What do we do? Service and Outreach Research Activities Educational Activities

4 Drought Response Committee (DRC) The current (DRC) is an ad hoc committee made up of representatives from the Nevada Division of Water Resources (DWR), the Nevada Division of Emergency Management (DEM) and the Nevada State Climatology Office (NSCO). The DRC in its current form is not formal, does not include end user stakeholders and does not have a mandate from the state. The primary actions of the DRC over the last two years have been to assess the magnitude, severity, and extent of the drought and the associated impacts within Nevada. This information is periodically summarized and disseminated to the public through official DEM Situation Reports and other reports aimed directly at informing the Governor's Office.

5 Nevada Drought Response Plan (DRP) Revised in April 2012, the DRP establishes an administrative coordinating and reporting system between agencies to appropriately respond and provide assistance to address drought and mitigate drought impacts. The DRP has a procedure for establishing regional ad hoc Task Forces to assist with the identification and assessment of drought conditions and impacts throughout the state. The DRP establishes a framework of actions based on different stages of drought to inform and support the Governor s Office in decisions regarding activation of the DEM State Emergency Operations Center and/or other related policies. A DEM Statewide Drought Emergency was declared in July 2012 and has continued until present. The drought stages in the DRP have been effectively replaced with the new USDA Drought Disaster Declaration procedure implemented in July 2012.

6 Nevada Drought Strategic Plan In November 2013, representatives from Nevada agriculture, ranching, irrigation districts, municipal water systems, tribes, emergency management, NWS, and other federal agencies worked together to develop core concepts of a Nevada drought resiliency strategy. The mission of the Nevada Drought Strategic Plan is to make recommendations for the development of institutions, plans and practices to: Manage the damage & risk of long term drought Reduce the recovery costs associated with long term drought Increase the resiliency of industry and municipalities to the effects of long term drought A draft version of the Nevada Drought Strategic Plan is almost ready for external review.

7 Commonly Asked Questions People want to know: 1. Is climate change to blame for the current drought? 2. Is climate change caused by humans or natural variability? 3. How long will the drought last? NSCO Research efforts are driven by these questions

8 Why are We Experiencing Drought Conditions?

9 Climate Winter Jet Dynamics Plot made by Ben Hatchett

10 Climate Winter Jet Position Plot made by Ben Hatchett

11 The N-S Transect Walker Lake There have been numerous long-term droughts of 10 to 20 years during the last 1,000 years and two megadroughts of 240 years and 180 years within the last 1,200 years. Plots made by Cassie Wilson

12 The N-S Transect Mono Lake Plot made by Ben Hatchett

13 The N-S Transect Convict Lake km N 19.3 ± 0.8 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka N 16.5 ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.8 ka ± 0.4 ka ± 0.7 ka ± 0.9 ka ± 0.5 ka W 17.8 ± 0.6 ka ± 0.7 ka W 32.3 ± 1.0 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka N 15.6 ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.3 ka ± 0.4 ka ± 0.4 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.6 ka ± 0.4 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.5 ka ± 0.7 ka ± 0.7 ka ± 0.7 ka ± 0.9 ka ± 0.8 ka ± 0.8 ka ± 1.0 ka A series of recessional moraines dated using surface exposure dating (Cosmogenic radionuclide dating using Beryllium-10) by Aaron Putnam. Convict Lake Moraine (draft) dating by Aaron Putnam

14 The N-S Transect - Chewaucan Aquatic mollusks Tufa Several photos from Adam Hudson

15 Putting it all together Chewaucan High X Chewaucan Low X X Plot made by Ben Hatchett red line connecting markers for visual clarity only