Until now, when agricultural producers, ranchers, policy makers, and natural resource managers throughout the Great Basin wanted to access weather and climate information in their region they had to sort through a myriad of bookmarked websites, agency reports and archived data.
In an effort to better disseminate drought information and data resources in a state where all but two counties have drought disaster designations, last month climatologists and scientists at the Desert Research Institute’s Western Regional Climate Center in Reno, Nev. launched the Great Basin Weather and Climate Dashboard.
The central, online web portal features relevant images of both past, current and forecast conditions from various agencies. Data and image sources include the Western Regional Climate Center, National Resources Conservation Service, National Weather Service, and Climate Prediction Center. Users can view the images at-a-glance or follow links to continue to the original image and data source. Included products focus on temperature, precipitation, drought indices, and snowpack. Links to drought planning resources and current drought information are also available.
“While the new dashboard is not a solution to drought conditions, it can mitigate drought impacts by providing vital information to stakeholders and informing drought-related decision-making throughout the Great Basin,” said Nina Oakley, an assistant research scientist at DRI who manages the new web-based dashboard.
The Great Basin Weather and Climate Dashboard is a joint effort amongst the Western Regional Climate Center, California and Nevada Applications Program, the USDA Farm Service Agency and the Great Basin Landscape Conservation Cooperative.
The most recent version of the Great Basin Weather and Climate Dashboard is available online at: http://gbdash.dri.edu/
