Creating a 43-Year High Spatial and Temporal Resolution WRF Reanalysis for California and Nevada

The California and Nevada Smoke and Air Committee (CANSAC) has supported since May 2004 operational Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) twice daily forecasts at the Desert Research Institute. Initially, hourly forecasts out to 72 hours on a nested inner 2km spatial resolution domain were produced; these runs are now run on a 1.33km inner domain. Based on this system, agencies in California expressed interest in having a CANSAC WRF climatology to use for analyses such as mapping environmental influences on utility fire threat, air quality studies, and general climatological analyses. Over recent years, CAL FIRE, the USGS Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, and the California Energy Commission has sponsored development of a 43-year (1980-2022) hourly 2km full volume (32 atmospheric levels) WRF reanalysis covering the California and Nevada rectangle. This presentation describes development of the dataset including the bias correction process, some select climatology results, and potential uses in fire and smoke management.