The rising demand for climate information in California and Nevada

The demand for climate information across California and Nevada has accelerated as population grows, indications of climate change strengthen, drought continues its multi-year grip, and as State government and other agencies and institutions engage in planning for the near and more distant future. In particular, since Governor Swartzenegger's 2005 Executive Order S-3-05, California has undertaken a regular series of assessments of its climate to inform State policymaking on mitigating and adapting to climate change. California and Nevada water and land management agencies are taking increasing interest in the role that climate plays in affecting water supplies, ecosystems and wildfire hazards in order to conduct planning on seasonal to multi-decade time horizons. Scientists from NOAA RISA California-Nevada Applications Program, along with the California Energy Commission-sponsored California Climate Change Center have contributed to these assessments with applications-oriented research that is s being conducted in partnership with key representatives from the water resources, wildfire, health, agriculture, and coastal sectors. To develop effective regional climate information requires (1) able and well networked partners from the decision making community; (2) methodically observed data describing natural and managed systems in the region; (3) models of the climate and its linkages and impacts on sub-daily temporal scales and on few km spatial scales commensurate with the physiographic structure in the region; and (4) ongoing assessments of the observed climate and its impacts along with evolving projections of variation and changes in the physical, biological and social landscapes.andscapes.