Southeast Alaska Drought and Extreme Events
Learning from recent drought in Southeast Alaska and planning for potential future
Southeast Alaska is a temperate rainforest that has been experiencing extreme heat and periods of prolonged drought. Dry conditions and extreme drought have had economic impacts and created warming low oxygen environments for salmon which are important for subsistence and commercial economies. In May 2019 a drought workshop for Southeast Alaska was held to refine drought categories for the region, increase awareness of the National Drought Monitor and drought impacts reporting, and highlight available information and resources to assist with adapting to drought. However, since 2019, drought conditions have ceased and Southeast Alaska has experienced extreme wind, rain, and snow events that have had profound societal impacts.
In March 2022, a workshop was held in Juneau, Alaska to build on existing efforts and assist with the development of community-driven adaptation strategies that would serve specific needs, challenges, and opportunities of remote, temperate rainforest communities. The latest research, data decision support tools, and local monitoring efforts were shared. Participants included agencies, academic researchers, Tribes, and others to assess the potential impacts of both drought and extreme events on both the natural and built environments. The workshop included talks and focus groups covering the topics of weather and climate, the forest environment, socioeconomics, and streams and salmon (including the marine environment). The full workshop report is available on the Adapt Alaska website.
Links to NOAA National Integrated Drought Information System
Drought is not new in Southeast Alaska, but an understanding of the importance and impacts have been slow to reach beyond the region, and a warming climate is creating new ramifications. To increase national awareness of drought in Southeast Alaska, work on this project has been coordinated with the NOAA National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and related outcomes have been posted on the NIDIS website. In addition a series of four short-informational handouts and a final 16-page booklet that explores the background, causes and impacts of the 2016-2019 Southeast Alaska Drought can be accessed at this link.
Further data analysis, future projections and story map
Data analysis was complete to produce historical climate summaries (1981–2010) and future projections (2031–2060) of temperature and precipitation for both Metlakatla and Annette Island, using a dynamically downscaled dataset. The analysis was performed annually and by season.
Check out this story map entitled, “Precipitation Extremes in Southeast Alaska: Drought in the rainforest? Visualizing precipitation models in a rapidly changing climate”
Time series data can be found at this link.