Nebraska Legislature - Special Committee - Climate Change Seminar - HPRCC

Ms. Natalie Umphlett Author

06/08/2016 Added

175 Plays

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Seminar on Climate Change for the Climate Change Seminar for Elected Officials of the Nebraska Legislature - High Plains Regional Climate Center

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[00:00:00.860]Good afternoon everyone.
[00:00:02.847]My name is Natalie Umphlett,
[00:00:04.335]and I am the interim director
[00:00:05.839]for the High Plains Regional Climate Center.
[00:00:08.302]I'm really excited to be a part of this session today,
[00:00:10.180]because I think that we really do have tremendous resources,
[00:00:13.647]here at the University of Nebraska,
[00:00:15.223]and this is a great chance to highlight
[00:00:17.303]some of those climate-related resources that we have,
[00:00:19.696]all at our fingertips.
[00:00:22.271]I think we're really lucky,
[00:00:23.404]not every university or state even has all these resources.
[00:00:28.257]So the High Plains Regional Climate Center
[00:00:30.011]is located over on east campus in Hardin Hall,
[00:00:33.409]we're just one floor below
[00:00:34.609]the National Drought Mitigation Center,
[00:00:36.878]and we're just down,
[00:00:38.974]I guess down some floors and over
[00:00:40.848]is the Nebraska State Climate Office,
[00:00:42.448]so a lot of resources all housed in the same building there.
[00:00:46.607]I'm a very visual person,
[00:00:48.199]so if you want to follow along,
[00:00:49.985]I do have a two-pager in your packet.
[00:00:53.287]So if you have that need to see some pretty pictures,
[00:00:56.375]and words and things like that you can follow along.
[00:00:59.573]So it's tough to sum up what we've been doing
[00:01:01.596]for the past 30 years,
[00:01:03.111]so the High Plains Regional Climate Center
[00:01:06.350]started in 1987,
[00:01:07.573]under the direction of Dr. Ken Hubbard,
[00:01:10.233]a long-time professor who just retired in the past year.
[00:01:13.719]And so we do everything climate-related
[00:01:16.594]for the High Plains Region.
[00:01:18.041]So what that means is,
[00:01:18.886]we do anything climate-related for Kansas,
[00:01:21.451]Nebraska, the Dakotas,
[00:01:23.298]Colorado, and Wyoming.
[00:01:25.033]So that six-state region.
[00:01:26.449]We're one of six regional climate centers
[00:01:28.465]located across the country,
[00:01:30.258]so our program does cover the whole United States.
[00:01:33.195]So we've got sister centers
[00:01:34.761]at the Desert Research Institute out in Reno,
[00:01:37.400]down at Louisiana State University,
[00:01:39.695]at University of Illinois,
[00:01:41.478]at Cornell and also at University of North Carolina.
[00:01:44.754]So we cover the whole United States,
[00:01:47.570]and we work with a wide range of stakeholders.
[00:01:50.346]Here in Nebraska and the High Plains Region,
[00:01:52.811]we do have a focus on agriculture,
[00:01:55.151]and water resources.
[00:01:56.447]That probably is no surprise to everyone there.
[00:01:59.814]We have currently six full-time employees,
[00:02:03.289]and we work in the areas of climate services,
[00:02:06.548]so serving the people of the region.
[00:02:09.346]This really could be anything from...
[00:02:12.926]A student at a middle school calls in,
[00:02:15.703]and they want data for a science project.
[00:02:17.830]We can do that.
[00:02:19.389]All the way through medical doctors,
[00:02:21.838]they call, they need data,
[00:02:23.922]to help work on maybe an asthma index.
[00:02:26.494]These are all true stories.
[00:02:28.105]Or we work with people like Mike was talking about,
[00:02:30.941]with the USDA Climate Hubs.
[00:02:33.030]And so we've been partnering with the Northern Plains Hub,
[00:02:35.471]with Justin Derner,
[00:02:36.598]to do some work in agriculture that way.
[00:02:38.897]And so we really do take it from the small-scale,
[00:02:40.934]all the way to the large.
[00:02:42.942]Anything climate related,
[00:02:44.176]any questions,
[00:02:45.334]we will provide that expertise to you.
[00:02:48.262]We also have experts in database and product development,
[00:02:52.415]and so what that means is we're taking all that data,
[00:02:55.407]all the data that's being collected all across the nation,
[00:02:58.463]we're turning that into information that people can use.
[00:03:02.665]Sometimes people do just need
[00:03:04.086]those little pieces of data, right?
[00:03:05.998]So sometimes you just need to know,
[00:03:07.974]what was the wind conditions on this one certain day
[00:03:11.079]because I had a drift issue,
[00:03:13.649]and the farm next door sprayed,
[00:03:16.407]and they got it on my land,
[00:03:17.749]I need to know the conditions right then.
[00:03:19.702]Or it could be a much larger issue,
[00:03:22.268]so I need to know what the climate conditions were
[00:03:25.188]for a season.
[00:03:26.460]Or for a year.
[00:03:27.468]So kinda turning those little pieces of data
[00:03:30.662]into something that you can use,
[00:03:32.474]and into a tool.
[00:03:34.247]We also have people
[00:03:35.596]who are experts in stakeholder engagement and outreach.
[00:03:39.024]And so what we like to do at our center
[00:03:41.331]is not just build products,
[00:03:43.765]or provide data for the sake of doing that.
[00:03:46.267]We like to get out there,
[00:03:47.427]we like to talk to people,
[00:03:48.470]we want to learn what their needs are.
[00:03:51.043]We want to build products and provide information
[00:03:53.046]that people are actually going to use,
[00:03:55.219]otherwise why are we going to do it?
[00:03:57.915]We want to make sure that we're serving people's needs.
[00:04:01.222]We also monitor the climate,
[00:04:02.757]and so we do produce monthly, quarterly,
[00:04:05.925]and soon to be annual climate summaries
[00:04:07.950]for the whole entire region,
[00:04:09.730]and so it sums up the different conditions that we've seen,
[00:04:12.645]extreme events,
[00:04:13.914]puts that into a historical context.
[00:04:17.048]Okay, so if we say,
[00:04:19.100]the average temperature for Lincoln
[00:04:20.500]was 75 degrees one month,
[00:04:22.517]that doesn't really mean much.
[00:04:24.139]But if we say it was 75 degrees
[00:04:26.221]and that was the warmest April on record,
[00:04:29.371]now you can do something with that.
[00:04:31.789]Okay, so we do a lot of this climate monitoring,
[00:04:33.916]putting our current conditions into that historical context.
[00:04:37.882]And we also do some applied regional climate research,
[00:04:41.035]so anything High Plains focused,
[00:04:43.397]that we can turn into a research project.
[00:04:45.738]Sometimes the stakeholder needs,
[00:04:48.208]we can't address those right away.
[00:04:50.144]So we need to kind of go back to the drawing board,
[00:04:52.090]see if we can't do a project,
[00:04:53.817]maybe get some funds to do that,
[00:04:55.564]and then we'll take that research to operations that way.
[00:04:59.850]And so we not only serve the High Plains Region,
[00:05:03.121]so the six states I mentioned,
[00:05:04.653]we also have contacts all over the United States
[00:05:07.025]and the world,
[00:05:08.377]and so in the past five years we've actually served
[00:05:10.519]over 20 countries.
[00:05:12.170]So we have people from all over the world
[00:05:13.730]who come to us to learn about data,
[00:05:16.210]to get data from the High Plains Region,
[00:05:18.091]for their research purposes.
[00:05:22.180]And then for a visual,
[00:05:24.757]on the back here you can see
[00:05:26.452]that we like to turn that data into information,
[00:05:29.586]so this is a rain gauge here.
[00:05:33.402]Has anybody heard of CoCoRaHS or NeRain?
[00:05:36.649]So some people,
[00:05:37.482]so it's a volunteer network of observers.
[00:05:40.186]So we take data like that,
[00:05:41.767]and we can turn it into products
[00:05:43.422]like this nice, pretty rainbow map here.
[00:05:46.283]So we can take that information,
[00:05:47.985]to a product there.
[00:05:50.365]And just some interesting things
[00:05:52.214]that we've been doing as of late,
[00:05:53.806]we've really been getting into training.
[00:05:55.909]And so we've had folks come to us and say,
[00:05:58.157]look, we're having these problems,
[00:06:00.285]we don't have climate expertise,
[00:06:02.333]how do I grab that data and use it?
[00:06:05.407]And so we say okay.
[00:06:06.623]Come on out to our center,
[00:06:07.862]we'll train you.
[00:06:08.695]So we've actually had people come out
[00:06:09.957]from Wind River Indian Reservation,
[00:06:12.175]out in Wyoming.
[00:06:13.515]And so we've trained them on how to grab data,
[00:06:15.984]and turn that into a drought monitoring tool,
[00:06:18.933]for their reservation.
[00:06:21.439]Just last year we also had folks
[00:06:23.404]from the National Weather Service
[00:06:25.197]come out and try to learn more about
[00:06:26.725]the climate aspect.
[00:06:28.941]They're experts in weather.
[00:06:30.765]And they know a lot about climate,
[00:06:32.301]but they don't always know exactly where to go
[00:06:34.029]to get that data, and how to use that.
[00:06:36.317]So we actually had a training workshop for them.
[00:06:39.279]And one of the things that came out
[00:06:40.616]of some workshops just this year,
[00:06:42.389]with the Climate Hub,
[00:06:43.909]was that we're going to try to get some trainings in place
[00:06:46.605]for some of the USDA folks,
[00:06:48.601]because their expertise is in agriculture.
[00:06:50.854]And so we're going to try to find out ways
[00:06:52.141]that we can kind of meld those two for some training.
[00:06:54.685]So that's been one of the new developments at our center.
[00:06:58.557]And of course we do a lot of educational outreach,
[00:07:02.442]develop new products and tools,
[00:07:04.894]and then...
[00:07:06.805]We've also done some climate data analysis
[00:07:08.512]for the city of Lincoln,
[00:07:10.175]so they can use that for city planning.,
[00:07:12.149]as well.
[00:07:13.882]So just a little tidbit,
[00:07:15.103]tough to sum up 30 years but...
[00:07:17.248](laughter from the audience)
[00:07:21.061]But we're here,
[00:07:22.477]we're over on east campus,
[00:07:23.820]you can stop by, you can email,
[00:07:25.008]you can call.
[00:07:26.133]We don't turn anybody away,
[00:07:27.290]so...
[00:07:28.406]Any questions, just bring them on.
[00:07:33.245]Oh wow, lots of hands.
[00:07:35.981]I have a question.
[00:07:39.014]Did you want to, okay sure.
[00:07:40.725]Sure.
[00:07:41.831]What do you see
[00:07:42.762]as the role of the Regional Climate Center
[00:07:44.399]going forward during climate change?
[00:07:47.433]That's a great question,
[00:07:48.386]so...
[00:07:50.009]Traditionally we've just been in the business,
[00:07:53.088]I guess in the business,
[00:07:54.118]of kind of current climate conditions,
[00:07:58.680]kind of the past few months
[00:08:00.663]and to the past,
[00:08:01.690]but over time we've been seeing our data request shift,
[00:08:06.399]to some of the climate change parts,
[00:08:08.360]and so we have put together a climate change
[00:08:10.746]on the prairie guide,
[00:08:12.729]so that people can look at different conditions
[00:08:14.335]for the region,
[00:08:16.390]but it's not necessarily our mission to do climate change,
[00:08:20.590]but if people ask for it,
[00:08:22.679]then we will provide.
[00:08:26.564]Yeah.
[00:08:27.559]We're going to do one more question
[00:08:28.660]so we can keep moving.
[00:08:29.844]Go ahead.
[00:08:30.804]The issue of training USDA employees
[00:08:33.844]in terms of climate change and climate science is,
[00:08:38.212]do you think that a two-hour session will do it,
[00:08:40.468]or is this something they would have to learn
[00:08:42.157]over a period of time with a lot of study?
[00:08:45.656]So it depends on the level that they want to get involved.
[00:08:48.420]So some of the things that we talked about,
[00:08:50.974]were specifically on data training.
[00:08:53.281]So where to go to get data.
[00:08:55.266]So if farmers were saying,
[00:08:57.149]you know, I really want to know conditions
[00:08:59.145]around my farm.
[00:09:01.329]They would be able to have the expertise
[00:09:03.682]to point them in the right direction.
[00:09:06.249]So where to go to get that data,
[00:09:07.577]because there's a lot of different places to go,
[00:09:09.985]there's a lot of different places
[00:09:12.740]to get different maps,
[00:09:13.877]or grafts,
[00:09:15.058]things that maybe wouldn't...
[00:09:18.181]People wouldn't have to recreate those products,
[00:09:20.822]they're already out there.
[00:09:22.100]So we've kind of explored maybe doing like a data training.
[00:09:25.288]Okay.
[00:09:26.121]Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
[00:09:26.954]So you two'll be talking.
[00:09:28.118]Yeah.
[00:09:28.982]That's exactly what we want
[00:09:30.414]these kind of sessions to have.
[00:09:31.688]Okay.
[00:09:32.521]And so, thank you so very much.
[00:09:33.354]Thank you.

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Nebraska Legislature - Special Committee - Climate Change Seminar - HPRCC

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