Climate Adaptation Science Investigators (CASI)
Extreme Weather Events Workgroup
Extreme climate events have outsized impacts on human morbidity and mortality, ecosystem and agricultural health and productivity, and economic development and resiliency. Changes in the frequency and severity of these extremes with climate change is therefore of significant concern, especially since much of the current social and economic infrastructure is built around assumptions of risk based on climate in the 20th century. The impacts of climate extremes in a changing climate in the U.S. have been demonstrated by several recent events, including the recent megadrought in the western U.S. (extreme water stress on crops), the extreme cold snap in Texas during February 2021 (massive power outages), and recent heavy precipitation and extreme flooding in Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding communities in June 2022 (disruption to wildlife and tourism). In support of CASI, the Extreme Weather Workgroup has quantified changes in the relevant climate extremes for NASA Centers using both the NASA Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections CMIP6 (NEX-GDDP-CMIP6) downscaled climate model projections and hydrologic simulations from the Land Information System (LIS).
Projections
CASI Extreme Weather Event projections for NASA Centers and their surrounding regions may be viewed on the NASA Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) website.
Contact
The points of contact for this workgroup are Sujay Kumar (sujay.v.kumar@nasa.gov) and Benjamin Cook (benjamin.i.cook@nasa.gov).
