15th Annual
Pacific Northwest Climate and Water Webinar: 2012 Water Year

November 2, 2011
2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

The Climate Impacts Group Annual Fall Climate and Water Meeting

Every fall, the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington hosts meetings summarizing the seasonal climate forecast and water resource outlook for the Pacific Northwest (PNW) for the upcoming water year.

The information presented at these meetings provides resource managers the opportunity to consider how climate variability and change may affect near-term and long-term management decisions in the PNW.

This year, due to widespread limitations of travel funds, the CIG will host an abbreviated version of the fall forecast meeting as a webinar. We hope this format will allow for participation by a wide range of users, including those who may not have previously attended a fall forecast meeting.

 

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General Meeting Information

The Climate Impacts Group's (CIG's) annual climate and water meeting assumed a different format this year due to cuts in travel funds for many of the participants' agencies that customarily attend the meetings. The format for this year's workshop was a two hour webinar with presentations and discussions related to the impacts of the 2010-11 La Niña, the climate outlook for 2012, and how this winter's climate forecast may affect streamflow conditions in the Pacific Northwest in 2012, including streamflows in the Columbia and Snake River basins. An agenda is included below.

The webinar is open to the public. Past meeting participants have included:

• federal, state, and local level water resource managers
• public and private electric utility managers
• environmental consultants
• public lands managers
• agricultural specialists
• non-profit organizations
• tribal members and technical staff
• researchers

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Agenda and Presentations

The agenda for the webinar includes the following presentations:

2:00 - 2:10	Welcome and Introductions - Lara Whitely Binder, CIG
2:10 - 2:30	Recap of the 2010-11 La Niña and Impacts on PNW Climate - Jim Johnstone, UW JISAO
2:30 - 2:40	Moderated Q&A on the climate recap
2:40 - 3:00	Climate Outlook for the 2012 Water Year - Nate Mantua, CIG
3:00 - 3:10	Moderated Q&A on the climate outlook
3:10 - 3:35	PNW Streamflow Forecasts for the 2012 Water Year - Steven King, Northwest River Forecast Center
3:35-3:55	Moderated Q&A on the streamflow forecast and any other issues of interest to webinar participants
3:55-4:00	Closing comments - Lara Whitely Binder, CIG

Related items mentioned during the webinar:

The Second Annual PNW Climate Science Conference (Sept 13-14, 2011) - includes many presentations that might be of interest to webinar participants. All presentations were recorded so you are able to see and hear the presentations.

Table of warm and cold ENSO years by season dating back to 1950 (related to a question asked during the webinar)

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Other Climate Meetings of Interest

American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting - December 5 - 9, 2011 (San Francisco, CA)

The AGU Fall Meeting is the largest worldwide conference in the geophysical sciences, attracting nearly 20,000 Earth and space scientists, educators, students, and policy makers. This meeting showcases current scientific theory focused on discoveries that will benefit humanity and ensure a sustainable future for our planet. You can find out more about the AGU meeting here.

The Climate Impacts Group, University of Washington
Questions? Contact Lara Whitely Binder , 206-616-5349