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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
Not all droughts are the same. In some cases, drought rapidly intensifies at subseasonal to seasonal scales with significant impacts to agriculture and water resources along with the increased propensity for heatwaves and wildfires. Like all droughts, flash drought begins with a precipitation deficit. However, both evaporative demand and soil moisture are critical flash drought variables, and identifying and monitoring the desiccation of the terrestrial surface is key for determining flash drought development and associated impacts. While recent advances in knowledge and monitoring of flash drought have occurred, fundamental questions remain in the state of the science. What are the overall mechanistic relationships between atmospheric demand, evaporative stress, terrestrial desiccation, and precipitation that drive the progression of flash drought? Do regional characteristics of the environment impact the evolution of flash drought? What are the scales of predictability for flash drought? Finally, how will flash drought frequency and intensity evolve in a changing climate system?
Biography
Dr. Jeffrey Basara is a Professor and serves as Chair of the Department of Environmental, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is deeply passionate about teaching and mentorship with the goal to provide outstanding instruction and meaningful educational experiences that empower students to become future leaders and difference makers in the environmental sciences. Dr. Basara’s research is focused on the complex, integrated processes across weather, climate, water, and ecosystems with specific attention directed toward precipitation extremes and associated impacts. This includes droughts, flash droughts, flash floods, and pluvial periods, along with the evolution of the planetary boundary layer, surface-atmosphere exchange, urban-atmosphere interactions, and severe and extreme weather such as heat waves, cold air outbreaks, and cascading events. He is a Kavli Fellow of the United States National Academy of Sciences and has received multiple research awards including the Research, Education, and Economics (REE) Under Secretary’s Award in 2019 from the USDA.
Upcoming Schedule
The following are the planned drought seminars. Times, dates, and presenters subject to change.
| Date/Time | Presenter | Affiliation | Presentation Topic/Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 13, 2026 • 1pm ET | 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 |
| August 10, 2026 • 1pm ET | Tim Brown | Desert Research Institute and Western Regional Climate Center | Fire weather |
| September 14, 2026 • 1pm ET | Michael Anderson | State of California - Department of Water Resources | Drought, El Niño, and California |
Past seminars
| Date | Presenter | Affiliation | Presentation Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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)
