5: Present Weather and Climate: Evolving Conditions

Present Weather and Climate: Evolving Conditions reveals the variability and trends of the region’s climate using data from weather instruments and paleoclimate records (such as tree rings), comparing the climate of the last 100 years with that of the last 1,000 years, and linking patterns of past climatic conditions to the variability of river flows in the region’s major water basins.

Citation: 

Hoerling, M. P., M. Dettinger, K. Wolter, J. Lukas, J. Eischeid, R. Nemani, B. Liebmann, and K. E. Kunkel. 2013. “Present Weather and Climate: Evolving Conditions.” In Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwest United States: A Report Prepared for the National Climate Assessment, edited by G. Garfin, A. Jardine, R. Merideth, M. Black, and S. LeRoy, 74–100. A report by the Southwest Climate Alliance. Washington, DC: Island Press.

The areal extent of drought over the Southwest during 2001–2010 was the second largest observed for any decade from 1901 to 2010.
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Authors
Martin P. Hoerling (NOAA, Earth System Research Laboratory)
Michael Dettinger (U.S. Geological Survey and Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
Klaus Wolter (University of Colorado, CIRES)
Jeff Lukas (University of Colorado, CIRES)
Jon Eischeid (University of Colorado, CIRES)
Rama Nemani (NASA, Ames)
Brant Liebmann (University of Colorado, CIRES)
Kenneth E. Kunkel (NOAA Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, North Carolina State University, and National Climate Data Center)

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