NOAA National Weather Service - Tucson Office

Extreme heat is a key public health risk in the adjacent cities of El Paso, TX, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and Las Cruces, NM. Projected temperature changes, combined with the urban heat island effect and regional poverty, expose urban areas with high vulnerabilities to heat-health risks. This project increases preparedness and capacity to adapt to extreme high temperatures and heat waves in Rio Grande/Bravo basin border cities through several approaches: identifying key heat-health parameters and target populations for heat-health early warning; determining a calendar of climate- and weather-related public health decisions; assessing capacity for coordinated heat-health early warning; and facilitating discussions toward developing a community of practice and mutual learning within a network of regional cities. The project advances frameworks for a National Integrated Heat Health Information System and initiatives within the Global Framework for Climate Services. For more information, click here.

Adapting to climate change requires that decision makers have information that is relevant to solve their problems at hand. Unfortunately, potential users of climate information often do not know where to look for relevant information, nor are producers of climate information well connected to potential users, resulting in a gap that separates the supply and demand of climate information. This project first created a comprehensive database of climate service providers in the western US. Now researchers are conducting a survey of climate service providers to better understand what services are in demand, how providers are developing and maintaining their stakeholder networks, and how they evaluate climate services development and stakeholder engagement. The Western Region Climate Service Providers Database: http://wrcc.dri.edu/ClimSvcProviders/

This project emphasizes network development in the Sonora-Arizona border around environmental risks and air quality issues, small scale computing and technology, and small-scale solar feasibility. A possible outcome is to inform decisions about community solar prospects in Nogales, Sonora, such as a shared solar bank that multiple NGOs could use for power. Ongoing participation and presence are requisite parts of building and sustaining collaborative partnerships. The Covid-19 pause in travel shows how things begin to fade a little, although we are maintaining contact with the network through email, WhatsApp, and texting.

La EcoCasa en Nogales, Sonora website aggregates recent work on solar and sensor technology, as well as more than 10 years of previous work in this network of partners. It summarizes information about the feasibility and capacity for solar power in Nogales and the role of sensor technology in tracking environmental risks https://nogalesecocasa.arizona.edu/.

Monsoon precipitation is difficult to forecast and analyze. Daily and seasonal precipitation are commonly used, but other sources of data, such as citizen science monitoring, could be integrated into a higher resolution and more accurate monsoon assessment framework. Tucson has dozens of observations collected by these networks, along with datasets based on radar and weather models. A central monsoon data repository would form a dense network of observations, facilitate innovative visualizations, and offer an unparalleled high-resolution view of regional precipitation patterns. This project is testing a process to combine southwestern data networks into an integrated monsoon assessment database and data visualization platform.

The Monsoon Viewer shows current monsoon precipitation patterns, based on specific requests from National Weather Service as well as other emergency management stakeholders. They want next day decision support tools for post-event management – researchers designed the viewer with this application in mind. We are exploring a real-time use for the dataset, but the focus is on short term post-event recovery and management. http://monsoon.environment.arizona.edu/

The Southwest U.S. Summer Monsoon Season Precipitation Mapping Tool. This mapping tool is a near real-time monsoon season precipitation mapping system developed in May 2019. https://cals.arizona.edu/climate/misc/SWMonsoonMaps/current/swus_monsoo….

Monsoon Season Station Summaries can be found at this link: https://cals.arizona.edu/climate/misc/stations/monsoon/current.html

Both of these tools were recently added to the National Weather Service’s Tracking the Monsoon webpage: https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/twc/monsoon/monsoon_tracker.php

Orchards and vineyards are particularly sensitive to temperature and are increasingly important to rural economies of the Southwest. However, growers of these high-value perennial fruit and nut crops have limited climate information to support critical decisions about selecting sites and cultivars. This project involves Cooperative Extension in AZ and NM and individual growers to survey a set of orchards and vineyards currently under production to gather information about their siting and cultivars. An assessment will be made of the required temperature conditions for current cultivars, whether these have historically been met, and if they are likely to be met in the coming decades. Crop insurance indemnity records will be used to perform a financial assessment of how site and cultivar selection are functioning in the current regional climate. The suitability of present-day cultivars will be evaluated in the context of anticipated increases in regional temperature.

To help inform the expanding winegrape-growing industry in Arizona, we are compiling and visualizing data of several relevant aspects of climate, soil, and topography specific to the proposed Sonoita, Willcox, and Verde Valley AVAs. This standard information about winegrape-growing regions does not exist for Arizona AVAs. https://cals.arizona.edu/research/climategem/content/arizona-avas.

The Climate Viticulture Newsletter provides a quick look at timely climate topics relevant to winegrape growing in Arizona and New Mexico. Monthly and mid-month special issues are sent via email and posted online. https://cals.arizona.edu/research/climategem/content/climate-viticultur….