CoCoRaHS WxTalk consists of a series of monthly one-hour interactive Webinars featuring engaging experts in the fields of atmospheric science, climatology and other pertinent disciplines. These easy to follow presentations are live and approximately sixty minutes long. The audience is given the chance to submit questions which the experts answer live on the air.
Topics have included: Snow, Satellites, Hurricanes, Lightning, Clouds, Tornadoes, Flash Floods, Fire Weather, Weather History, Radar and How to become a Meteorologist, just to name a few.
There are many exciting Webinars on the agenda in the months ahead, so please tell your friends to join us. All WxTalk Webinars are free and most are recorded for later viewing.
Thursday, June 23, 2016 - 1PM EDT
Weather, climate and extremes in the western U.S.
Nina Oakley
Western Regional Climate Center
Reno, NV
The Western Regional Climate Center services 11 western states including Alaska, Hawaii, and the US API. Our region boasts a diversity of climates including both hot and cold deserts, temperate and tropical rainforests, and alpine tundra. The main drivers of climate in much of the West are its latitudinal range, proximity to the vast Pacific Ocean, cool coastal currents, and abundance of mountainous terrain.
The West is also home to a variety of extreme weather phenomena that are often distinct from the tornados, hurricanes, and blizzards observed in the central and eastern parts of the country. Narrow corridors of high water vapor transport called atmospheric rivers produce intense rainfall and flooding when they encounter the rugged terrain of the West Coast. Extreme terrain-enhanced winds are also a common hazard during the passage of frontal systems. Wintertime inversions that induce hazardous air quality are commonplace in populated basins of the Intermountain West. Dangerous flash flooding occurs frequently in the Southwest and Great Basin during the summer when the North American Monsoon kicks in, and dying tropical storms have been known to brush the Southwest inducing heavy rainfall.
This presentation will explain the drivers of weather and climate of WRCC’s region within the conterminous US as well as explore some of its exciting extreme events!