Webinar #48 - Thursday, May 5, 2016

"The Weather and Climate of the Plains: The Land of Extremes"

Natalie Umphlett
Interim Director/Regional Climatologist
High Plains Regional Climate Center
Lincoln, NE

(biography)

Nestled in the interior of North America lies the Great Plains, which stretches over 2,000 miles from Texas in the south through portions of Canada in the north. This region is known for its expansive skies, filled with billowing clouds and fiery sunsets. The geography of the region, with the Rocky Mountains to the west and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, contributes to a defining feature of the plains – its strong east to west gradient in precipitation. Early travelers on the plains would have experienced this through the transition from tall to short grass prairies and modern day travelers can see this as the trees in the east and scrubland in the west whiz by. The area is also prone to a wide variety of extreme weather and climate events, including heat waves, cold waves, flooding, drought, and blizzards, in addition to high winds, hail, and tornadoes from thunderstorms. Recently, the region suffered back to back extremes, with historic flooding in 2011 followed by historic drought in 2012.



View the Webinar by clicking here: https://youtu.be/Nwv5cZMcRQk



View Natalie's presentation slides (8.3MB)





Resources:

High Plains Regional Climate Center

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Station search tool

Webinar archive

Monthly/Quarterly Reports

Climate Change on the Prairie