Collaboration for Drought Mitigation and Preparedness

Bunny L. Bishop, Nicole A. Goehring

ABSTRACT
Nevada is the driest State in the nation and as such must deal with frequent and severe droughts. Drought planning, preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery involves a high level of collaboration and coordination among Federal, State, and Local government agencies. As part of this effort,a series of drought planning, mitigation, and communication workshops were held in 2022. This article discusses the collaboration and communication process and provides asummary of the key takeaways from these drought workshops.

Keywords: drought, mitigation, planning, preparednessBishop, Bunny and Goehring, Nicole,2022, Collaboration for Drought Mitigation and Preparedness.
Authors: BUNNY L. BISHOP, Nevada Division of Water Resources, 901 S. Stewart St., Suite 2002, Carson City, NV 89701 (bbishop@water.nv.gov); NICOLE A. GOEHRING, Nevada Division of Water Resources, 901 S. Stewart St., Suite 2002, Carson City, NV 89701(ngoehring@water.nv.gov)
Citation: Bishop, Bunny and Goehring, Nicole,2022, Collaboration for Drought Mitigation and Preparedness. Journal of the Nevada Water Resources Association, Winter 2022,p. 4-9.
DOI: 10.22542/jnwra/2022/1/1. Copyright 2022 Nevada Water Resources Association

Understanding Nevada’s Current Drought in Historical and Paleoclimatic Context

Stephanie A. McAfee, Adam Z. Csank, Mathew Lachniet, Scott A. Mensing, Constance I. Millar, David Rhode, David Hurst Thomas

ABSTRACT
Nevada lies in one of the driest parts of North America.The region has long grappled with droughts andalso with extended periods in which the already dry climate aridified for decades or centuries. Here we place Nevada’s most recent statewide drought (2020 –present) in the context of historical,archaeological and paleoclimaterecords dating back through the Mid-Holocene. The current drought is distinct from historical droughts that impactedthe state in the 1930s, 1950s, and 1970’s and 1980s. It isnotably warmer than droughts of the 20thcentury andmore spatially extensive than any of these, although the 1930s drought also impacted much of the West. The early 2020s drought is also embedded within a two-decade long dry period, raising important questions about whether it is (1) drought, a relatively short period of abnormal dryness; (2) megadrought, a longer and typically more severe period of unusually dry conditions; (3) the manifestation of aridification, a shift towarda generally drier climate because of long-term precipitation declines and/or warming; or (4) some combination of the three. A broader view suggests that at least some aspects of drought since 2020 may not be unique. Paleoclimateevidence from cave deposits, lake and meadow sediments, animal middens, dead wood and tree rings indicate that Nevada and much of the western United States experienced decadal and centennial long dry periods in the Middle Holocene (5000 –7000 years ago), the Late Holocene, (1800 –3100 years ago), during the Medieval Climate Anomaly (1000 –650 years ago) andagain 600 –500 years ago. Thearchaeological record shows that Indigenous Nevadans responded by repeatedly adaptingto changing paleoenvironmental conditions.However, somekey questions about fine-scale temporal and spatial variability in the experienceof drought remain.Limitations in the spatial, seasonaland temporal resolutions of climate reconstructions—and in the observational record—may obscurethe evidence forshort or seasonally specific wet periods within longer dry periodsor spatialvariability in precipitation.Nonetheless, proxy and archaeological evidence from the last 10,000 years showsthatunderstanding and responding to drought requires viewing droughton these time spanswithan appreciationfor the details that appear in modern observations.

Keywords: drought, paleoclimate, proxies, archaeology
Authors: STEPHANIE A. MCAFEE, Department of Geography and Nevada State Climate Office, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 North Virginia Street, Mail Stop 0154, Reno, NV 89557 (smcafee@unr.edu); ADAM Z. CSANK, Department of Geography, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 North Virginia Street, Mail Stop 0154, Reno, NV 89557 (acsank@unr.edu); MATHEW LACHNIET, Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada Las Vegas, 4505 S. Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas, NV 89154 (Matthew.Lachniet@unlv.edu); SCOTT A. MENSING, Department of Geography, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 North Virginia Street, Mail Stop 0154, Reno, NV 89557 (smensing@unr.edu); CONSTANCE I. MILLAR, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, 800 Buchanan St., Albany, CA 94710 (constance.millar@usda.gov); DAVID RHODE, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Pkwy, Reno, NV 89512 (dave.rhode@dri.edu); DAVID HURST THOMAS, Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West @ 79th Street, New York, NY 20024 (thomasd@amnh.org)
Citation: McAfee, Stephanie et al.,2022, Understanding Nevada’s Current Drought in Historical and Paleoclimatic Context. Journal of the Nevada Water Resources Association, Winter 2022,p. 10-52.
DOI: 10.22542/jnwra/2022/1/2. Copyright 2022Nevada Water Resources Association

Water Resources in the Truckee Meadows

Kara Steeland, Bill Hauck, Greg Pohll, John Enloe, Stefani Morris
ABSTRACT
Over the last century water supply and demand conditions have changed in northern Nevada.Climate change is causing increased temperatures, evaporation, and declining snowpack storage (Siirila-Woodburn, 2021). There is considerable uncertainty about the future magnitude of annual precipitation (Lynn, et al., 2015), but increased variability is expected (Zhang et al., 2021; Gonzalez et al., 2018). Increased precipitation variability may translate into longer and more severe droughts or more frequent flooding. Continued warming trends will likely result in more precipitation falling as rain instead of snow, which has the potential to decrease the region’s snowpack (Harpold et al.,2017; Hatchett et al., 2018; Cooper et al.,2016). Changing conditions will require changes in water resources management strategies to improve efficiencies, and sustained actions that conserve available resources and ongoing adaptive management. The Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA) manages its water resources to provide a resilient and reliable water supply for the region. TMWA is continuing its adaptive management strategy by analyzing a broad range of future conditions and planning for solutions to deal with the changing climate and increasing population. This article provides an overview of TMWA, its service area, supply sources, water rights, future supply scenarios, and adaptive management strategies (TMWA, 2020).
Citation: Steeland, K., et al., 2022, Water Resources in the Truckee Meadows. Journal of the Nevada Water Resources Association, Winter 2022, p. 53-70.
DOI: 10.22542/jnwra/2022/1/3. Copyright 2022Nevada Water Resources Association