General Meeting Information

The Climate Impacts Group's (CIG's) annual climate and water meeting provides a forum for discussing the upcoming winter's climate forecast and how it may affect streamflow conditions in the Columbia River Basin and coastal drainages in Washington and Oregon in 2011. The meeting also highlights new research, decision support tools, and other information useful to managing for Pacific Northwest climate variability and climate change.

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

Agenda and Presentations

A final agenda for the meeting is available. Presentations from the meeting are posted below in PDF format.

9:00-9:10

Welcome and introductions – Nate Mantua, CIG

9:10-9:40

Winter 2009-10 climate recap and outlook for winter 2010-11 – Nate Mantua, CIG

9:40-10:00

ENSO transition and the potential for extremely wet winters in PNW – Alan Hamlet, CIG

10:00-10:30

Seasonal volume forecasts using Ensemble Streamflow Prediction for the 2011 water year - Stephen King, NWS River Forecast Center

10:30-10:50

** Break **

10:50-11:10

A quasi -biennial signal in Northwest climate - Jim Johnstone, UW JISAO

11:10-11:30

Historical analysis of Pacific Northwest heat waves – Karin Bumbaco, Office of the Washington State Climatologist

11:30-11:50

Climate change impacts on Skagit River streamflow and stream temperature - Ron Tressler, Seattle City Light

11:50-12:00

Additional Q&A time on morning presentations

12:00-1:00 ** Lunch (provided) **

1:00-1:20

Update on the Columbia Basin Climate Change Scenarios Project – Alan Hamlet, CIG

1:20-1:40

Watershed to regional tree-ring reconstructions of Pacific Northwest streamflow: What can the last 500 years tell us about the nature of water availability? - Jeremy Littell, CIG

1:40-2:00

Paleo-reconstruction of summer streamflow and seasonal uncertainties using the VIC hydrologic model - Eric Lutz, UW Dept. Of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Presented by Alan Hamlet)

2:00-2:20

Improving estimates of the hundred year flood for forest road management: Methodology and applications to the Olympic National Forest – Ingrid Tohver, CIG

2:20-2:40

** Break **

2:40-3:00

Updates on WUCA and EPA's Climate Ready Water Utility Group – Lorna Stickel, Portland Water Bureau

3:00-3:20 C3: Update on Federal climate change collaboration in the Northwest - Lief Horwitz, USGS
3:20-4:00

New developments in regional climate decision support programs – Nate Mantua (CIG), Phil Mote (OCCRI ), and Stephanie Harrington (UW)

4:00 Meeting wrap-up and adjournment – Nate Mantua, CIG

Other Climate Meetings of Interest

Idaho Climate and Water Meeting: 2011 Water Year - November 2, 2010 (Boise, Idaho)

The Idaho Climate and Water Meeting for the 2001 Water Year provides the opportunity to hear how forecasted climate conditions for the winter 2010-2011 may affect regional climate and streamflow conditions in the Columbia and Snake River Basins in 2011. More information on the Idaho meeting is available here.

American Meteorological Society 91st Annual Meeting - January 23-27, 2011

The theme for the AMS 2011 Annual Meeting is "Communicating Weather and Climate". Effective communication is a key component in the intersection of scientific research and public interest. An interdisciplinary approach to science and creating channels for public access to key findings contributes to the scientific literacy of society. This meeting will provide and opportunity for researchers to discuss effective means of communicating weather and climate forecasts that is useful for public sectors.