The NOAA CPO Modeling, Analysis, Prediction, and Projections (MAPP) program hosted a webinar on the topic of California Drought: ENSO Implications and Operational Outlook on Monday, September 28, 2015. The announcement is provided below; you are invited to remotely join the session.

NOAA OAR played a significant role in the recently-convened AGU Chapman Conference on the California Drought, held in Irvine, California during April 20-22.

The Climate Program Office congratulations the Drought Assessment Team, which was awarded a Group Silver Medal for Scientific/Engineering Achievement for their work assessing the origins of the 2012 Central Plains Drought. The group includes CPO’s Modeling, Analysis, Predictions and Projections (MAPP) Program and the Drought Task Force.

This NOAA Drought Task Force/NIDIS report details the results of an extensive multi-research-group analysis of the causes and predictability of the drought. The report finds that the exceedingly warm and dry conditions that caused the drought were due to a high pressure ridge off the west coast of the United States influenced heavily by anomalous sea surface temperatures. These influences are attributed to natural variability.