NEWS

'How to Use the Toolbox' for Grassland Managers

The Climate Toolbox was utilized in a 2-day Grasslands workshop (Lakewood, Colorado) for US Fish and Wildlife and BLM land managers in District 5 & 6.

On day 1,  Katherine Hegewisch,  Imtiaz Rangwala and John Guinotte presented a 75-minute introduction to the Toolbox illustrating how to use the toolbox for future scenario planning related to biological species. 

On day 2, participants broke into groups looking at one of two grassland species: the regal fritlilary (a butterfly) and the grasshopper sparrow (a bird). Participants used the Climate Toolbox's Future Scatter tool to identify climate models of interest for each species and the Future Climate Scenarios tool to gather future projection information from the specific scenario models. Using this information, they discussed and brainstormed land management solutions that might work into the future with each species within the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework. 

Climate Data Stories for Portland, Oregon

At the 25th annual ENVX symposium at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR, Katherine Hegewisch presented a 1.5 hour hands-on workshop entitled 'Using maps and graphs from the Climate Toolbox to create climate data stories'. In this workshop, students broke into groups of 2-3 and worked on one of six climate data activities created for the workshop. A representative from each group then gave a 5-min presentation on their climate data story. The activities walked students through data stories related to Portland's future fire danger, forests, grape growing suitability, streamflow for drinking water, wolverine habitat and temperature climate analogs. 

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User Guide to Climate Change Portals

The Climate Toolbox is featured in the Aspen Global Change Institute's newest User Guide to Climate Change Portals. This guide aims to provide a first introduction to the vast and growing set of climate data portals that serve as resources to support planning and adaptation for the Mountain West. The Climate Toolbox is named as one of three of the 'most comprehensive sites' out there which are 'user-friendly and versatile' for exploring historical climate data and/or future projection climate data. 

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Highlighting applications of climate tools to decision-making

In this September 2021 CIRCulator, the Climate Toolbox introduces two new series of documents that increase accessibility of the Climate Toolbox: the Climate Toolbox Summaries series, which provides overviews of tools, and the Climate Toolbox Case Studies series, which highlights how users are applying the tools to decision-making. The documents in both series are straightforward, two-page summaries that are available for viewing and downloading from the Climate Toolbox website.

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Spokane Climate Project supports local and state climate initiatives

In the September 2021 CIRCulator, Kara Odegard (Manager of Sustainability Initiatives at the City of Spokane) explains the history of the Spokane Climate Project and how they released the Spokane’s draft Sustainability Action Plan. This draft plan was informed by the Climate Toolbox and the Spokane Climate Project's climate report.

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Climate Enabling Conditions and Drivers of the Western Oregon Wildfires of 2020

In the December 2020 Climate Currents for the CIRCulator, climatologists John Abatzoglou, David Rupp, and Larry O’Neill break down the forces that enabled Oregon’s historic fires in September 2020. In their analysis, they use a graph from the Seasonal Progression Tool in the Climate Toolbox.

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Less snow is the new norm. That’s trouble for farmers

In the December 2020 Columbia Insight, Nathan Gilles describes how rain and less snow are going to be the new normal as the Columbia regional climate warms using maps and graphs from the Climate Toolbox.

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Snowpack Comeback

In the January 2020 Climate Currents for the CIRCulator, Oriana Chegwidden describes how despite a rough start in December 2019, the snowpack in the Washington Cascades has had a comeback. Oriana uses maps from the Climate Toolbox.

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Extremely Warm Days to Continue Under Climate Change

In the August 2019 CIRCulator, Nathan Gilles describes a study of the heat index which supplied data for the Climate Toolbox.

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This Summer - A Welcome Reprieve

In the August 2019 Climate Currents for the CIRCulator, John Abatzoglou describes the climate during the summer of 2019 and uses a map from the Climate Toolbox.

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