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NOAA Drought Seminar Series
The NOAA Drought Seminar Series is a recurring monthly event dedicated to drought monitoring, prediction, and predictability. The seminar's primary objective is to establish a focused platform where national drought research, operational, and user communities can exchange the latest tools, research findings, and risk reduction activities.
A collaborative effort between NOAA Research's Physical Sciences Laboratory, the National Integrated Drought Information System, and the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center, this series aims to enhance NOAA's capability to monitor, predict, and understand drought behavior.
Drought is a key part of NOAA Research's science priorities aimed at confronting the challenges of a changing planet. It also is a key focus of National Weather Service operational forecast products and services, supporting stakeholder decision-making and reducing drought-related costs and impacts.
Each session will feature a speaker presentation, a question and answer period with the presenter, and general updates on activities within the drought science and services community.
The NOAA Drought Seminar series is generally held on the first or second Monday of each month at 1pm Eastern Time (UTC -4). Days and times may differ pending speaker availability.
Next seminar
Abstract
When El Niño is mentioned with respect to California, images of extreme storms from the winters of 1983 and 1998 often come to mind. Although El Niño does shift the distribution of precipitation outcomes towards wet, dry outcomes do occur. Of the seven events where the Relative Niño Index exceeded 2.0 during winter in California, three ended up with below average precipitation and below average snowpack. In this presentation, comparisons are made between the 7 very strong El Niño events exploring factors that separate wet and dry outcomes in California’s water year.
Biography
Michael Anderson is the State Climatologist for California, a collaborative position between the State and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration to provide climate data services for the state. Michael began working in the Department of Water Resources Division of Flood Management (DWR-DFM) Forecasting Section in July 2005 and became State Climatologist in 2007. Currently Dr. Anderson works in the Director’s Office of the Department of Water Resources providing technical knowledge and advice for climate resilient resources management.
Upcoming Schedule
The following are the planned drought seminars. Times, dates, and presenters subject to change.
| Date/Time | Presenter | Affiliation | Presentation Topic/Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 11, 2026 • 1pm ET | Michael Anderson | State of California - Department of Water Resources | Drought, El Niño, and California |
| October 19, 2026 • 1pm ET | Amir Aghakouchak | University of California, Irvine | Current gaps and opportunities in drought science and services |
Past seminars
| Date | Presenter | Affiliation | Presentation Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 10, 2026 | Tim Brown | Desert Research Institute; Western Regional Climate Center | Exploring Drought and Wildfire |
| July 13, 2026 | Jeffrey Basara | Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at University of Massachusetts Lowell | The Ever-Present and Growing Threat of Flash Drought in an Accelerating Hydroclimate More info and recording |
| June 8, 2026 | Dan McEvoy | Desert Research Institute and Western Regional Climate Center | Progress and Challenges on Understanding Snow Droughts in the Western United States. More info and recording |
| May 11, 2026 | Jon Gottschalck | Operational Prediction Branch, NOAA Climate Prediction Center (CPC) | CPC operational drought services: Overview of monitoring and prediction products, outlook verification, Impact-Based Decision Support Services (IDSS) activities and ongoing developmental efforts. More info and recording |
| April 13, 2026 | Richard Seager | Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University | Pathways of ongoing aridification in southwest North America: Linkages across seasons in the ocean-atmosphere-land system. More info and recording |
- Seminar Organizers
- Andrew Hoell, Research Meteorologist, NOAA/OAR Physical Sciences Laboratory
- Hailan Wang, Meteorologist, NOAA National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center
- Veva Deheza, Executive Director, NOAA/OAR/CPO National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS)
