Southwest Drought Briefing: August 9, 2022

Welcome to the Southwest Drought Update

Speaker: Emile Elias | USDA Southwest Climate Hub

• Welcome to the August 2022 Southwest Drought Briefing. 
• Learn more about the Southwest Drought Learning Network.
• Acknowledgment of land.
• View past webinar recordings at drought.gov/webinars.
• Introduction of the speakers:
  • Curtis Riganti, Climatologist, National Drought Mitigation Center
  • Dawn Browning, Research Ecologist, USDA–Agricultural Research Service, Jornada Experimental Range

Current Conditions and Drought Outlook

Speaker: Curtis Riganti | Climatologist, National Drought Mitigation Center, Lincoln, Nebraska

• Drought continues across the Southwest.
• Lake Mead is at its lowest elevation on record.
• The Southwest U.S. monsoon has been active and provided some improvement to short-term drought conditions. Long-term drought conditions persist.
  • The western U.S. was in poor condition following the below-average snowpack from last year.
  • Some locations in the West have received over 5 inches of rain so far this monsoon season.
  • The second wettest day on record for Death Valley was August 5, 2022.
• Seasonal drought outlooks show drought in the Southwest is likely to remain but improve.
• Seasonal (August–October) precipitation outlooks show equal chances of above- or below-normal precipitation for Arizona, western New Mexico, and southern Utah/Nevada. Odds favor below-normal precipitation for northern Utah/Colorado.

Examining PhenoCams as a Tool for Monitoring Drought

Speaker: Dawn Browning | Research Ecologist, USDA–Agricultural Research Service, Jornada Experimental Range, Las Cruces, New Mexico

• Phenology is the study of seasonal cycles in biological phenomena.
• A PhenoCam is a digital camera that is posted on a tower and pointed at a fixed point to observe seasonal changes.
• Time series of Green Chromatic Coordinate (GCC) from PhenoCam images have been used to measure changes in landscape greenness and other applications.
• GCC may be a good indicator of recovery from drought.
• Learn more about the PhenoCam Network.

Questions & Answers

Speaker: Joel Lisonbee | NOAA/National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)