CW3E Co-hosts 2022 Southwest Extreme Precipitation Symposium (SWEPSYM)

May 9, 2022

The Southwest Extreme Precipitation Symposium (SWEPSYM) is annual conference co-hosted by the Floodplain Management Association and CW3E that brings together the scientific community and water managers in the Southwest. With a focus on the Southwest, SWEPSYM shares technical and scientific information and knowledge about the various factors responsible for producing extreme precipitation and the hydrologic processes. The conference is at the interface of research and applications. It has four main objectives:

  1. Focus attention on precipitation extremes in the Southwest region of North America.
  2. Share technical and scientific information and knowledge about the various factors responsible for producing extreme precipitation and the hydrologic processes responsible for generating runoff in semi-arid and arid areas.
  3. Advance our understanding of the causes of extreme precipitation with the hope of increasing the warning time in advance of extreme precipitation ranging from droughts to floods.
  4. Exchange information on engineering, water management, flood control, agricultural, and other Southwest regional needs for information on extreme precipitation.

The theme of SWEPSYM 2022 is “Exploring Extreme Conditions Impacting Water Supply from the Colorado River Basin”. The Colorado River Basin provides water to nearly 40 million people and irrigates about 5.5 million acres of agricultural lands in the Southwestern US and Mexico. Recent climate change impacts are altering the extreme conditions in the basin, including both droughts and floods. Exploring the past, current, and potential future impacts from climate changes on droughts and floods was covered by ten speakers over two half-days virtually on April 19th and 20th.

CW3E researchers Zhenhai Zhang, Mu Xiao, and Kerstin Paulsson gave presentations. Zhenhai’s presentation explored the characteristics and origins of extreme snow days and weeks in the Yampa River Basin, including the role of inland penetrating atmospheric rivers. Mu gave a presentation about examining hydrological modeling with remote sensing products in the Colorado River Basin with a focus on surface temperature and snowpack. Kerstin introduced a new long-term hydrometeorological observing network in the Upper Yampa River Basin, which is a collaboration between CW3E, Colorado Mountain College, and Yampa Valley Sustainability Council to monitor soil moisture in the Upper Yampa River Basin with the support from the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District. Anna Wilson of CW3E helped moderate the event.

The presentations from this year’s Symposium, including video, audio, slides (PDF format), and abstracts, are now available on the SWEPSYM website.