New State Climate Summaries
NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information and the Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies have released an updated set of climate summaries for all 50 US states plus Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. These are comprehensive updates to the summaries released in 2017, with additional data, improved figures, and updated text addressing recent trends and notable climate and weather events across the country.
The new summaries are available on the web and as downloadable PDFs at https://statesummaries.ncics.org/
You can learn more about them at https://ncics.org/cics-news/new-us-state-climate-summaries/
Grant Will Fund Climate Resilience Strategies for Frontline Communities in the Carolinas
North Carolina State University will lead a multi-institutional effort to develop climate resilience solutions in frontline communities in the Carolinas, thanks to a five-year, $5 million dollar grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Frontline communities refer to communities who experience the first and worst impacts of the climate crisis.
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NCICS's Ronnie Leeper led a major collaborative effort to enhance our understanding of drought formation and frequency across the US, with the goal of helping stakeholders prepare for, and minimize, future drought impacts.
The research team, which included NCICS' Olivier Prat, used US Drought Monitor data to better understand how drought events vary across different regions of the US and how these events begin, develop, and end.
The team also developed an interactive mapping tool that allows users to see how many droughts have occurred in a given area and the number of droughts in each category of drought severity.
Learn more in this web story from NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information:RELEASED: The U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly staple since 2000, is used in a new study that looks at historical drought conditions in the U.S. bit.ly/20YearDroughtStudy
North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies - NCICS #NCEIClimate
Climate change is driving increases in heavy precipitation across much of the US, and planners need better information about future precipitation events in order to develop more resilient infrastructure. Researchers from NCICS and NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information have developed statistics for the intensity, duration, and frequency of future precipitation events that account for the expected influence of climate change. These statistics are now available to the public via an interactive website:
precipitationfrequency.ncics.org/.
This work builds on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Atlas 14, a critical resource that provides historical data on heavy precipitation events. The new projections and uncertainty estimates, which will help planners design for a rapidly changing future, are available for areas across the US, except for five states in the Northwest where NOAA Atlas 14 values are not available. Values are provided for scenarios with moderate and high levels of future greenhouse gas emissions.
The website is just one outcome of a five-year SERDP and ESTCP-funded project to improve our understanding of heavy precipitation events and how they will change in the future. The "About" page of the website provides background information and technical details about the new design values and the underlying research outcomes.