Drought Preparation in Utah

This collaborative project between Utah State University and the SWCH aims to enhance drought preparation resources, tools, and knowledge transfer for farmers and ranchers in Utah.

Water Research Vision

The Agricultural Research Service, USDA’s intramural scientific research agency, is a leader in agricultural water research locally, nationally, and internationally, with a focus on landscapes that produce food, fiber, fuel, and forage, as well as their source-waters and receiving-waters.

Drought Learning Network

The Drought Learning Network is a peer-to-peer knowledge exchange between climate service providers and resource managers. The main goal of the DLN is to gather and share lessons learned from drought events to improve responses to future droughts. The DLN was conceptualized as a framework for stakeholders to share experiences in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from drought to inform current and future response and mitigation actions.

WATA

The Water Adaptation Techniques Atlas (WATA) catalogs information about responses to water scarcity in the southwestern U.S., presented in the form of case studies.

DISES

Water and community resilience through spatial integration of ecohydrological processes and traditional sociocultural knowledge. The Southwest Climate Hub is partnering with the NM Water Resources Research Institute on an innovative community engaged research approach that will yield outcomes of resilience for socio-environmental systems. The project, funded by the National Science Foundation (2023 to 2027) will lead to Integrated ecohydrological and social science; spatially integrated metrics of water availability and use; interactive map of modeled future resilience; and new community-inspired and science-supported management priorities.

CoCoRaHS

CoCoRaHS (pronounced KO-ko-rozz) is a grassroots volunteer network of backyard weather observers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow) in their local communities. By using low-cost measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an interactive Web-site, our aim is to provide the highest quality data for natural resource, education and research applications. The only requirements to join are an enthusiasm for watching and reporting weather conditions and a desire to learn more about how weather can affect and impact our lives. The USDA Southwest Climate Hub promotes CoCoRaHS, occasionally provides free gauges, and helps monitors install new gauges. 

MyRAINge

My RAINge Log is an easy-to-use tool to help track actual rainfall and facilitate better land management. The platform brings together cutting edge web technology, climate data, and visualization tools focused on collecting and analyzing cumulative precipitation from remote, unattended rain gauges. My RAINge Log is specifically designed around the type of infrequent, cumulative precipitation observations often collected at remote, rangeland sites. It adds unique ‘climate context’ and near-real time precipitation alerts based on gridded climate estimates. These features help managers put data in context (“Does this precipitation observation indicate drought or not?”) helps to quickly interpret data, and supports management decisions.
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