Drought is a significant feature of the climate in Hawai‘i and the U.S-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI), with severe impacts across multiple sectors. This talk presents an overview of drought in Hawai‘i and the USAPI. It analyzes a new gridded drought index product (SPI, Standardized Precipitation Index) to determine the relationships between drought and large-scale modes of natural climate variability (including the El Niño-Southern Oscillation) and to characterize historical droughts in Hawai‘i back to 1920. The talk also examines management actions before, during, and after drought and includes case studies of past droughts.

Video of Abby Frazier's presentation on 3/19/19 at East-West Center:

 

Abby Frazier is a Fellow (Early Career Scholar) at the East-West Center, where she studies climate change and climate variability in the Pacific and impacts on water resources and ecosystems. Before joining the East-West Center, she was a post-doctoral Research Geographer with the USDA Forest Service, Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, where she completed a drought synthesis for the Hawaiian Islands. Her research areas of interest include climatology, geospatial analysis and data visualization, geostatistics, climate variability, decision support, and landscape ecology. Dr. Frazier is also an affiliate graduate faculty member in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

Drought is a significant feature of the climate in Hawai‘i and the U.S-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI), with severe impacts across multiple sectors. This talk presents an overview of drought in Hawai‘i and the USAPI. It analyzes a new gridded drought index product (SPI, Standardized Precipitation Index) to determine the relationships between drought and large-scale modes of natural climate variability (including the El Niño-Southern Oscillation) and to characterize historical droughts in Hawai‘i back to 1920. The talk also examines management actions before, during, and after drought and includes case studies of past droughts.

Video of Abby Frazier's presentation on 3/19/19 at East-West Center:

 

Abby Frazier is a Fellow (Early Career Scholar) at the East-West Center, where she studies climate change and climate variability in the Pacific and impacts on water resources and ecosystems. Before joining the East-West Center, she was a post-doctoral Research Geographer with the USDA Forest Service, Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, where she completed a drought synthesis for the Hawaiian Islands. Her research areas of interest include climatology, geospatial analysis and data visualization, geostatistics, climate variability, decision support, and landscape ecology. Dr. Frazier is also an affiliate graduate faculty member in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.