CLIMAS - Southwest Climate Podcast
El Niño and La Niña, the southwestern monsoon, tropical storm activity, increasing temperatures, fire risk and weather, drought and snowpack, and dwindling reservoir storage all pose challenges to the Southwest. In the ‘Southwest Climate Podcast’, we focus on details and nuance, but (generally) avoid excessive technical jargon. Our goal is to synthesize information and data from experts, forecasts, and models to provide listeners with a better understanding of climate and weather in the Southwest, as well as the lessons we can learn from recent events and long term experiences.
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Episodes
Thursday Nov 09, 2017
Thursday Nov 09, 2017
In the Nov 2017 episode of the CLIMAS SW Climate Podcast, Mike Crimmins and Zack Guido sit down to discussion temperature and precipitation in the Southwest over the past month or so, and the discrepancy between Arizona and New Mexico re: precipitation. They also dive into ENSO and the emergent (weak) La Niña conditions, and what this might mean, taking a close look at last year (another weak La NIña) and other weak La NIña events of the past decades. They wrap up with a quick summary of the seasonal outlooks for the Southwest.
Tuesday Oct 03, 2017
Tuesday Oct 03, 2017
In this episode of the CLIMAS Southwest Climate Podcast, Mike Crimmins and Zack Guido look back at the monsoon that wasn't, then very much so was, and then wasn't again (at least in Arizona), as well as the late season surge over in New Mexico. They discuss the mechanisms that helped push the monsoon to near record levels in July, but helped facilitate a shut down for most of August and nearly all of September. They also discuss "the bet". Next month the discussion will return to ENSO, drought, and upcoming forecasts for fall/winter in the SW, but for now, it's all monsoon, all the time.
Thursday Aug 10, 2017
Thursday Aug 10, 2017
In the August edition of the CLIMAS SW Climate Podcast, Mike Crimmins and Zack Guido discuss how much has changed since the last podcast (Jul 12), which ended up being one of the first days in an impressive string of sustained monsoon precipitation events across the Southwest - and in much of southern Arizona in particular.
In the podcast - Mike and Zack recap the monsoon performance and statistics to date, they give an overview of the atmospheric patterns that led to the extended run of monsoon precipitation, and they daydream a bit about how close this year could come to monsoon records (if it stays on the current trajectory).
Note: This podcast was recorded on Aug 9th, just before the next wave of monsoon activity fired up in southern Arizona.
Monday Jul 17, 2017
Monday Jul 17, 2017
In this edition of the CLIMAS Southwest Climate Podcast - Mike Crimmins and Zack Guido sit down to discuss Southwestern weather & climate, including:
The extended heat wave of June 2017 (and the near record heat for the first half of 2017 (Jan-Jun)) (1:00 - 15:00),
The wildfires in the Southwest , and the role that a monsoon late arrival might have played (15:00-19:00)
The Southwestern Monsoon - the components of the system, comparisons to other years, and what we might expect going forward (19:00-38:00)
As a note: this was recorded on Jun 12, 2017, before most of the extended run of monsoon activity that hit southern Arizona Jun 10 - Jun 17 (and is ongoing!). Mike and Zack will discuss more about this (amazing) week in the next edition of the podcast.
Materials discussed in this podcast:
Monsoon Resources
CLIMAS: www.climas.arizona.edu/sw-climate/monsoon
Monsoon Summaries: https://cals.arizona.edu/climate/misc/monsoon/monsoon_summaries.html
CSAP: Precipitation Maps of the Monsoon - Arizona and New Mexico
National Weather Service: www.wrh.noaa.gov/twc/monsoon/monsoon.php
Bob Maddox's MadWeather Blog - https://madweather.blogspot.com/
Arizona WRF Discussion - https://arizonawrf.blogspot.com/
*122nd out of 123 - otherwise known as the 2nd warmest June on record (listen in for the details from Zack and Mike)
Wednesday May 31, 2017
Wednesday May 31, 2017
In this episode of the CLIMAS Southwest Climate Podcast, Mike Crimmins and Zack Guido discuss May weather in comparison to the record/near-record March conditions, what this means for snowpack, streamflow and reservoir conditions. They also discuss past/present/future wildfire, the imminence of summer heat, and the eventual relief monsoon conditions will bring. Oh and a bit of El Niño sprinkled throughout - the role it might be playing in seasonal outlooks, and how strong it might be.
Thursday May 04, 2017
Thursday May 04, 2017
In the May 2017 episode of the CLIMAS Southwest Climate Podcast - Zack Guido is back and sits down with Mike Crimmins to do a recap of the winter that was (or in some ways, wasn't), the current and recent conditions in the Southwest (including fire weather and fire conditions), and a look forward to what we can expect from the "fire and brimstone" season that is already building (with just a hint of a monsoon discussion to keep Zack feeling sane).
We updated our iTunes podcast feed: It would help us tremendously if you could rate and review the new podcast feed in iTunes, as these ratings help other listeners find our podcast.
CLIMAS Member(s):
Ben McMahan
Michael Crimmins
Zack Guido
Friday Apr 28, 2017
Friday Apr 28, 2017
In this mini-episode of the SW Climate podcast, Mike Crimmins and Ben McMahan take a quick spin around the "snow-eater" temps of March, plus a brief comment on fire conditions. As a note: this was recorded before the SawMill Fire started in late April, so the discussion is on March conditions, and some commentary on early April Fire events (Shovel, Molino Basin). it might seem obvious now, but around 8 minutes in, but Mike hits the conditions that led to the SawMill fire pretty nicely. We'll have a full length podcast next week with Mike and Zack.
CLIMAS Member(s):
Ben McMahan
Michael Crimmins
Wednesday Mar 08, 2017
Wednesday Mar 08, 2017
In the March 2017 episode of the CLIMAS Southwest Climate Podcast, Mike Crimmins and Zack Guido discuss the winter season in the Southwest - with an eye towards how Arizona and New Mexico have fared (temperature, precipitation, snowpack, streamflow forecasts, etc.), as well as to the exceptional events taking place in California and across the Intermountain West. They also try to put this "La Niña" into context, how it did (or did not) meet expectations, and whether that even matters at this point, as well as what the rumblings of El Niño might mean for the rest of the Spring (and 2017 overall).
Materials discussed in this podcast:
CLIMAS Member(s):
Ben McMahan
Michael Crimmins
Zack Guido
Monday Jan 30, 2017
Monday Jan 30, 2017
In this episode of the CLIMAS Southwest Climate Podcast, Mike Crimmins and Zack Guido talk about the last few months of weather in the Southwest, and how it doesn't quite look like we might have expected given borderline La Niña conditions. They also discuss the recent run of storms, and what this might mean for drought, as well as the decay of La Niña and what this might mean for the rest of the winter in the Southwest. They share their mix of optimism given the weak/decaying La Niña, and pessimism given how dry the Southwest can be even under normal conditions. They also dive into a discussion of other models that inform our perspective on regional weather and climate (PDO, MJO).
Monday Dec 19, 2016
Monday Dec 19, 2016
In the December (Holiday!) edition of the CLIMAS Southwest Climate Podcast, Mike Crimmins and Zack Guido discuss the last few months of (warm, mostly dry) weather in the Southwest, what the season may hold given the "weak" La Niña conditions that may (or may not) be sticking around through the early part of 2017, and how the impacts we look for in the Southwest are connected to much larger regional and global phenomena - Atmospheric Rivers & the Polar Vortex (respectively).