Climate Risk Areas Initiative News

At its peak last summer, moderate to extreme drought gripped 61 percent of the Lower 48, but a "flash drought" brought exceptionally intense conditions to the Central Great Plains. Today, a new report by the NOAA Drought Task Force and the NOAA-led National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) finds natural variations in weather patterns caused this sudden “flash drought,” and is rules out global ocean conditions, as well as human-induced climate change, as major culprits.

WE&T Magazine highlights a collaborative research project that examines how water utilities, resource managers, and county and regional planners make decisions before and during extreme weather.

The NOAA CPO Modeling, Analysis, Predictions, and Projections (MAPP) program hosted a webinar on Tuesday, April 9 titled "High Resolution and Regional Modeling".

MAPP-funded researchers have found a lot of the "drought" impacts on maize in the US are driven by increases in extreme heat rather than decreases in rainfall. 

A feature article published online on the Alabama Cooperative Extension System's website describes the Southeast Climate Consortium's role in helping farmers in the Southeast use climate forecasting tools to make better decisions.