Nebraska Legislature - Special Committee - Climate Change Seminar - NSCO
Martha Shulski
Author
06/08/2016
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48
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Seminar on Climate Change for the Climate Change Seminar for Elected Officials of the Nebraska Legislature - Nebraska State Climate Office
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- [0:00] Used to be the director of the High Plains
- [0:01] Regional Climate Center.
- [0:02] My name is Martha Shulski.
- [0:03] I'm a meteorologist and climatologist by training.
- [0:06] I've been back in Nebraska since 2009.
- [0:09] Starting on January 1st, so for the last five months,
- [0:12] I've been director of the newly formed
- [0:15] Nebraska State Climate Office,
- [0:16] and I also serve as the State Climatologist
- [0:18] for Nebraska.
- [0:20] Almost all states in the country have
- [0:22] a state climatologist.
- [0:23] I think there are two that currently
- [0:25] do not have a state climatologist.
- [0:28] A lot of what Natalie said, if you apply it to
- [0:30] the state of Nebraska, that's what our office does.
- [0:35] We're very much a service and need based organization,
- [0:38] as opposed to a research based organization.
- [0:41] We do get involved in research projects,
- [0:43] but our primary goal is to serve the climate data
- [0:47] and information needs of the user community,
- [0:50] and we serve a very broad community.
- [0:53] It could be the media, it could be researchers,
- [0:55] it could be university extension, state legislators.
- [0:59] A very broad community that we serve.
- [1:02] When I say Climate Office, I mostly mean
- [1:06] current conditions and historical climate data.
- [1:09] Our office does not run climate models
- [1:13] and produce climate projections,
- [1:15] but a lot of what we do is help people
- [1:17] interpret the climate projections
- [1:19] that are already out there from the outlook scale,
- [1:22] say the upcoming season and upcoming few years,
- [1:27] to the next 50 to 100 years.
- [1:30] There's a lot of questions that we get
- [1:32] into what does this mean for us?
- [1:34] What is this projection saying?
- [1:36] That's how we get involved in climate change issues
- [1:41] is helping people interpret the information
- [1:43] that's already out there.
- [1:48] Our main goal, then, is to deliver weather
- [1:51] and climate data and information
- [1:52] to the user community.
- [1:54] We do that by three main objectives.
- [1:57] One is operating a state-wide weather network.
- [2:00] Nebraska is very fortunate to have this
- [2:03] research-quality network of automated
- [2:06] weather observations throughout the state.
- [2:08] We're up to about 70 weather stations now.
- [2:11] We started with five in 1981.
- [2:13] We've grown significantly, which is very good.
- [2:17] We've got significant financial assistance
- [2:20] from the legislator.
- [2:22] That came into place a few years ago.
- [2:24] We're certainly very grateful to have
- [2:26] that financial assistance to help
- [2:28] operate the network.
- [2:30] We're always looking for opportunities
- [2:31] to expand this network.
- [2:33] We observe things like air temperature
- [2:36] and humidity and precipitation
- [2:38] and soil temperature and soil moisture,
- [2:42] wind speed and direction.
- [2:44] We archive that information and then
- [2:46] develop products based off of that information.
- [2:50] There are a couple of handouts in your folder
- [2:52] that will talk about the office itself,
- [2:56] as well as the state-wide weather network.
- [3:00] Operating the weather network,
- [3:02] that's one of our main objectives.
- [3:04] Another one is serving the needs
- [3:06] of the user community.
- [3:08] Anything related to climate.
- [3:10] It could be climate change, could be climate
- [3:11] variability, it could be historical climate,
- [3:15] future climate.
- [3:16] Anything related to climate, that's what we're
- [3:19] geared toward doing.
- [3:22] Then trying to engage with our stakeholders
- [3:25] and understand the needs of the user community.
- [3:29] Like Natalie said, we don't want to just put out products
- [3:31] that we think are helpful, we want to talk with folks
- [3:36] and see what their needs are and really try
- [3:39] and put out useful and usable information and tools.
- [3:44] Like I said, our office, we're about five months old now,
- [3:47] so we don't yet have a website that I can point you to,
- [3:50] but in the next few months I'll be able to do so
- [3:54] and we'll have a whole range of products
- [3:57] that are geared toward the state of Nebraska,
- [4:00] both current conditions, historical conditions
- [4:04] and we'll also offer some information in regard to
- [4:06] projected climate for Nebraska,
- [4:09] historical trends, and information like that
- [4:11] regarding climate variability and climate change.
- [4:17] Let's see, what else did I want to talk about?
- [4:21] One of my big interests, I talk to a lot of different
- [4:25] groups about climate change and people always ask,
- [4:28] "What does this mean for me?
- [4:30] "What does climate change mean for me?"
- [4:32] And I say, "Well, what are you interested in?
- [4:35] "What affects you?
- [4:37] "Is it temperatures during the winter time?
- [4:40] "Is it high temperatures during the summer time?
- [4:42] "Is it heavy rain events?
- [4:44] "What metric is really important to you?"
- [4:48] In my opinion, that's really what is lacking
- [4:50] is that knowledge of the specific metrics
- [4:55] regarding climate change and understanding those
- [4:58] and helping the user community understand
- [5:01] projections of those specific metrics
- [5:04] of climate change.
- [5:06] That's a particular interest that I have.
- [5:11] I just wanted to make a comment, there was discussion
- [5:13] earlier, I can't remember how exactly it got started,
- [5:17] but in talking about climate change,
- [5:20] a lot of the groups that I talk to,
- [5:21] I don't really go in there saying climate change,
- [5:24] climate change, climate change.
- [5:25] I go into a group of farmers and say,
- [5:27] "Well, what have you experienced?
- [5:29] "What changes have you made over time?
- [5:31] "What are you noticing?"
- [5:33] And you talk about extreme events,
- [5:35] and you talk about droughts and floods
- [5:37] and extreme heat.
- [5:39] You walk to their side of the bridge,
- [5:41] so to speak, and you start there.
- [5:44] Then you bring the person over to your side
- [5:46] of the bridge, which is an understanding
- [5:48] and knowledge of climate change.
- [5:52] If you stand at the one side and say,
- [5:53] "Hey, climate change, come over here,
- [5:55] come talk to me," it's probably not going to work
- [5:58] in some groups.
- [5:59] If you go to the middle of the bridge and say,
- [6:01] "Hey, come here, meet me in the middle,"
- [6:04] that might not work, either.
- [6:05] You actually have to go to the other side of the bridge
- [6:08] and start there and take the person by the hand
- [6:10] and guide them back to where you want them.
- [6:14] That's just some of my experiences
- [6:16] in talking with various groups about the topic
- [6:20] of climate change and being really careful
- [6:22] with the message that you use and how you frame it
- [6:25] and making it very salient and relevant
- [6:30] and tangible.
- [6:31] Ken Winston and I over lunch were talking about
- [6:33] making it real and relevant and tangible
- [6:37] and something that people can understand, really,
- [6:41] and make decisions based off of,
- [6:42] as opposed to global climate change,
- [6:45] which is a really difficult concept to think about.
- [6:51] Just wanted to interject a few personal comments
- [6:53] on some of my experiences.
- [6:57] That's a little bit about who we are and what we do.
- [7:00] Like I said, we're a relatively new office.
- [7:03] There's been a State Climatologist in Nebraska
- [7:05] for the last several decades, but there's never been
- [7:08] a formalized State Climate Office with more than
- [7:11] one person.
- [7:12] Now we have that, which is a really good thing,
- [7:15] and so it's really exciting to talk to this group
- [7:18] and to think about where we could go with regard
- [7:21] to climate change and the action plan in Nebraska.
- [7:27] I guess I could maybe take questions, if there's
- [7:32] Yeah, any questions?
- [7:35] Thank you very much, and good luck. (laughs)
- [7:39] Good luck with that website.
- [7:41] Yeah. (laughs)
- [7:43] It's got to be absolutely user-friendly.
- [7:45] (laughter)
- [7:47] Good.
- [7:48] Yeah.
- [7:49] Now, I know there's a soil
- [7:51] moisture monitoring network in Nebraska.
- [7:53] Mm-hmm.
- [7:54] Is that part of what you do now
- [7:55] Yes.
- [7:56] Is wet net?
- [7:57] Your whole weather stations are equipped with that?
- [7:58] Yes.
- [7:59] In your packet, there's something called,
- [8:00] "Keeping the Records," so this is our little
- [8:02] two-pager on the network.
- [8:05] Soil moisture is a part of that.
- [8:08] We're actually for new stations that are going in,
- [8:10] we're going to five depths of soil moisture
- [8:12] and temperature as well.
- [8:15] In the past, it's only been temperature
- [8:16] at one depth and moisture at four depths,
- [8:18] but yeah, and I think Don, you were probably involved
- [8:21] in when the soil moisture network started in Nebraska,
- [8:25] but that's at all of our locations here.
- [8:28] Okay.
- [8:29] I think it started about 2002,
- [8:32] when we started adding that instrumentation
- [8:35] to the automated network, and it was through
- [8:39] funding through the Bureau of Reclamation,
- [8:42] as a result of their Drought Assistance Program
- [8:46] in the 2002 drought.
- [8:49] We proposed that we add soil moisture monitoring
- [8:51] to all of our automated sites.
- [8:53] At that time, I think we had 50 or 55 weather stations.
- [8:57] We actually got federal funding to get that going
- [9:00] because soil moisture is the critical resource
- [9:03] for agriculture, but it's also important
- [9:06] for flooding issues and so forth to know what that is.
- [9:10] That's been a really helpful part of the network.
- [9:15] Great, okay.
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