California-Nevada Climate Applications Program (A NOAA RISA Team)

Since the start of the 21st century, California and Nevada have suffered extreme wildland fires and droughts that have caused devastating impacts to ecosystems and society. A common feature of these events has been very high evaporative demand—the “thirst” of the atmosphere—which has largely been driven by increased air temperatures caused by anthropogenic climate change. According to new

A Red Flag Warning (RFW) is a term that has been used since the 1960s by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS) fire weather forecasters to alert forecast users to an ongoing or imminent critical fire weather pattern. Through time, however, several issues with this system have evolved and created concerns about effectiveness of messaging,

The 2018-2019 water year is now underway, and with all eyes on the developing El Niño, there are many people wondering whether this winter will be any better than last year - particularly for snowpack in the West.  Last winter was marked by below-average precipitation and above-average temperatures through the first several months in many places across the country - with relief not

Visit the new snow drought page The beginning of the 2017/2018 winter season brought little rain and snow, giving rise to concerns about snow drought across the Western United States. Snow drought is defined as a period of abnormally low snowpack for the time of year, reflecting either below-normal cold-season precipitation (dry snow drought) or a lack of snow accumulation, despite near-