84th AMS Annual Meeting

Wednesday, 14 January 2004
Synopsis of a workshop on coastal climatologies for the southeastern United States
Hall 4AB
Michael J. Janis, Southeast Regional Climate Center, Columbia, SC; and D. W. Gamble and B. Simpson
This poster provides a summary of a workshop that explores the end-user needs of coastal climatologies along the Atlantic coast from Virginia to Florida. Such climatologies will be developed by the Coastal Services Center, the National Climatic Data Center, and the National Oceanographic Data Center and will be based on user priorities of meteorological (e.g., wind, temperature, and precipitation) and marine (e.g., sea surface temperature, salinity) parameters. Applications of these climatologies will likely require real-time data as well as retrospective data for placement within proper contexts for meaningful interpretation. Meteorological and marine parameters that may be included in coastal climatologies and their geographic and temporal scales will depend on “core uses” of these climatologies by coastal managers. Identifying core uses helps guide the list of participants of the workshop, including scientific representatives and key state and local managers who are faced with decisions that have climate-related components. Consideration of the core uses will lead to an integrated list of parameters that includes descriptions of the air over land and coastal waters, coastal waters themselves, and rivers. Core uses are mitigation of natural hazards, coastal inter-modal transportation, fishery management, recreation and tourism, agriculture, energy conservation and planning, water consumption, and storm water management. Participants will be provided guidance to develop a coastal climatology for use in coastal management decision-making processes. Working groups will discuss and outline specific recommendations as to the content, structure and communication of such a coastal climatology. Workshop notes and working group summaries will be synthesized in a workshop report. The report will guide further development of the parameters, tools, and applications that will constitute the coastal climatology. The report will provide guidance to NOAA on developing, testing, and evaluating coastal climatologies to support decision makers’ needs and priorities.

Supplementary URL: http://www.sercc.net/projects/ccw_info.htm