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Background |
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Project Overview |
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Research Methods |
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Status of Project |
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Related Links |
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Contacts |
El
Niño often brings increased moisture to the Southwest, but is the
end of the current drought in sight?
Research
and Products:
END
InSight: El Niño-Drought Initiative
Project Overview
Extreme to severe drought conditions have been developing since 1998 and the effects are increasingly being felt over much of the southwestern United States. In 2002, El Niño conditions began to develop in the equatorial Pacific, but forecasters were uncertain if El Niño rains would relieve drought conditions.
In July 2002, CLIMAS launched the El Niño-Drought Initiative (END InSight) as a rapid response to stakeholder needs for climate information about ongoing drought and forecasted El Niño impacts in Arizona and New Mexico. The goals of this initiative were to:
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Provide stakeholders with accurate information about El Niño and drought
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Invite and encourage stakeholder feedback
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Stimulate research
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Provide feedback to NOAA and other producers of climate information
At the onset of the project, we invited a group of 35 stakeholders from different sectors in Arizona and New Mexico to receive and evaluate a selection of climate information products over the course of a year. The participants received monthly climate packets, including summaries of recent conditions, long-range forecasts, and background materials on drought, El Niño, and other special topics.
Participants provided feedback on the packet materials through a monthly questionnaire and telephone interviews. We will be summarizing the information we received for use by our partner agencies in improving the products they provide and perhaps to identify and address important research needed by decision makers.
During the project, we routinely updated the news media on drought and El Niño issues through a series of press briefings in Arizona and New Mexico. We monitored newspaper and broadcast coverage, both locally and nationally, to get a better sense of how effective the media was in providing climate information to the public.
To reach a wider audience, CLIMAS began publishing the monthly climate information generated for stakeholders during the project on our public website and providing climate summaries to state legislators. This service continues as the Southwest Climate Outlook.
The project incorporated insights from previous research on the use of El Niño information by decision makers, including a pilot project conducted by NOAA in California during the 1997-98 El Niño. The information gathered during the course of the project will be translated into a series of articles, reports, scholarly papers, and web pages designed to increase public understanding of climate and its impacts in the Southwest and to encourage new research and development activities that result in more and better climate information and forecasts.