Speakers: Elizabeth Weight, NIDIS; Mike Halpert, Deputy Director, NOAA's Climate Prediction Center; Royce Fontenot, Senior Hydrologist, NOAA's National Weather Service
Seminar sponsor: NOAA Climate Program Office, National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) in partnership with the National Weather Service
What is the current status of El Niño and how has El Niño affected the drought in the Southwest? This webinar will provide up-to-date information on the drought, its impacts, and how El Niño may influence temperature and precipitation in the region, which includes portions of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. The webinar series is a collaboration of NOAA/NIDIS, NWS, USDA, state climatologists, universities and other drought experts.
About the Speakers:
Elizabeth Weight is the Regional Drought Information Coordinator for both the Intermountain West and Southern Plains Drought Early Warning Systems (DEWS) for NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). Elizabeth has more than 20 years of international water management and research experience in 14 countries in Asia and Africa, most recently with the CGIAR’s International Water Management Institute in Sri Lanka. Mike is the Deputy Director of the Climate Prediction Center (CPC). In this capacity, he provides support to the director ensuring the day-to-day operation of the CPC. Mike leads efforts to communicate CPC's goals and vision to customers, stakeholders, the media and the public, serving as CPC.'s point of contact for NWS Public Affairs. He also serves as CPC's property custodian and works to ensure the successful execution of budget priorities. He is also a member of the ENSO and seasonal forecast teams. He led CPC's real-time climate monitoring efforts throughout much of the 1990s and their forecast operations between 2002 and 2007. He has co-authored many peer-reviewed journal articles on numerous topics in climate variability and climate prediction, including papers detailing El Niño impacts around the globe. He received his bachelor's degree in Meteorology from Cook College, Rutgers University and his master's degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Michigan. He began is career at CPC as a summer student in 1981.
Royce Fontenot is the Senior Service Hydrologist at the NWS Weather Forecast Office in Albuquerque, NM. Royce manages the hydrologic services programs for both the Albuquerque and El Paso, TX forecast offices and serves as the NWS state liaison to State and Federal agencies throughout New Mexico. In addition to his duties as a hydrologist, Royce also is an NWS Incident Meteorologist (Trainee), providing on-site weather support to wildland fire incidents. Before being located in Albuquerque, he has worked at NWS offices in Alaska, Louisiana, and Washington State. Prior to his NWS career, Royce was on staff at the Southern Regional Climate Center and the LSU AgCenter in Baton Rouge, LA. He has a B.Sci in Geography and a Masters in Natural Science, both from Louisiana State University.
