Home Page

CLIMAS has been working closely with many different stakeholders in the Southwest during the last year to produce useful climate information and decision support tools. You can read learn more about how CLIMAS and its partners and stakeholders are filling knowledge gaps and responding to climate changes by viewing the new report: 2009–2010 Climate Assessment for the Southwest Research Highlights.

The Research Highlights include summaries of science projects in which, for example, CLIMAS research identified that the extreme dry period during 2000–2003 was similar to the driest period in the mid 1950s with one exception: it was hotter in the early 2000s. The Research Highlights also showcase new decision support tools that include a comprehensive Web-based resource called TreeFlow, which makes paleoclimate information collected from tree rings more accessible to decision makers. Other projects span topics related climate adaptation and vulnerability, drought, communicating science, and others.

The decade 2000-2009 was the warmest worldwide since the instrumental record began, according to NOAA’s recently released 2009 State of the Climate Report. The report is based on observations of 37 parameters measured around the world; many go back to the latter half of the 19th century. Some 300 scientists participated in the collection and analysis of the data.

Not only was the recent decade the warmest, but it was the third successive decade to set the record, indicating the presence of a strong warming trend over the last 30 years. The report identifies ten key climate trends that support the warming-planet conclusion. Seven indicators are rising: air temperature over land, sea-surface temperature, air temperature over oceans, sea level, ocean heat, humidity and tropospheric temperature in the “active-weather” layer of the atmosphere closest to the Earth’s surface. Three indicators are declining: Arctic sea ice, glaciers and spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere.

Download low or high resolution report here.