Carolinas and Virginia Climate Conference



October 20-21, 2009


Objective: To provide a forum to discuss climatology and climate-related issues specifically affecting the Carolinas and Virginia.

The Conference was held at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington Executive Development Center, located at 1241 Military Cutoff Rd., Wilmington. See http://www.uncw.edu/edc for more information on the conference site.


New Information

Thank you to all of our presenters and attendees who helped make this a very successful conference! Presentations are linked to the schedule below. Please properly credit the authors and presenters if any of this material is re-used.



Tuesday October 20, 2009
BEGIN END Presentation Author(s)/Presenter(s)
8:00 AM 8:15 AM Welcome, Orientation and Introductions Tim Armstrong, NWS ILM
8:15 AM 8:35 AM Regional Climate Services Peter Robinson, SERCC
8:40 AM 9:00 AM NWSFO RAH Climate Partnerships & Services Brandon Locklear, NWS RAH
9:05 AM 9:25 AM A Dynamic Local Hurricane Climatology Toolkit Ryan Boyles, David Church, Ashley Frazier and Mark Brooks, NC State Climate Office
9:30 AM 9:50 AM Agroclimate: Climate-based Decision Support for Southeast U.S. Agriculture Ryan Boyles, Heather Dinon and Gail Wilkerson, NC State Climate Office
9:55 AM 10:10 AM 15-minute break  
10:10 AM 10:50 AM State Climate Offices - A Resource for Climate Services Ryan Boyles, NC State Climatologist and Hope Mizzell, SC State Climatologist
10:55 AM 11:25 AM Innovative Climate Products for Public Use: Heat Index, Holiday, and Recreation Climatologies Ryan Boyles, Ashley Frazier, John McGuire, Mark Brooks and Corey Davis, NC State Climate Office
11:30 AM 12:00 PM The Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Coastal North Carolina: A Report By The Faculty of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington for Erskine Bowles, President, The University of North Carolina Doug Gamble, UNCW
12:05 PM 1:20 PM Lunch (75 minutes)  
1:20 PM 1:40 PM Integrated Water Resources Database for the Southeastern U.S. Ryan Boyles, Ashley Frazier and Mark Brooks, NC State Climate Office
1:45 PM 2:15 PM Improving Drought Detection Hope Mizzell, SC State Climatologist
2:20 PM 2:40 PM Using Large Scale Circulation Indices to Predict the Intensity of Cold Air Outbreaks Over Extended Time Scales Across the Southeastern U.S. Chip Konrad, SERCC
2:45 PM 3:00 PM 15-minute break  
3:00 PM 3:20 PM Winter Storms: An Overlooked Source of Death, Destruction and Inconvenience in the Carolinas Piedmont Region Chris Fuhrmann, Ross Connolly and Chip Konrad, SERCC
3:25 PM 3:45 PM Developing a Cold Temperature Risk Assessment Ryan Boyles, Kristen Gore and Adrienne Wootten, NC State Climate Office
3:50 PM 4:20 PM The North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council Ryan Boyles, NC State Climate Office
4:25 PM 4:45 PM Evaluation of NWS Multi-Sensor Precipitation Estimates for the Southeast United States Ryan Boyles, Adrienne Wootten, Aaron Sims and Mark Brooks, NC State Climate Office
4:50 PM 4:55 PM Wrapup and Dismissal Tim Armstrong, NWS ILM



Wednesday October 21, 2009
BEGIN END Presentation Author(s)/Presenter(s)
8:00 AM 8:10 AM Welcome Tim Armstrong, NWS ILM
8:10 AM 8:30 AM Winter Storms Impacts Climatology Ryan Boyles, Bradley McLamb, Elizabeth Wilson, Ashley Frazier and Mark Brooks, NC State Climate Office
8:35 AM 8:55 AM El Nino: Where We Are, Where We May Be Headed, and What Does It Mean For The Carolinas & Virginia? Michelle L'Heureux, CPC
9:00 AM 9:20 AM Toward a Climatology of Convective Mesoscale Organization in the Carolinas Thomas Rickenbach, ECU
9:25 AM 9:45 AM The Rainiest Areas of Earth: How Does Eastern NC/VA Rank?; Precipitation Extremes in the Carolinas: Satellites vs. Gauges Scott Curtis, ECU, and Sol Wuensch, Craven County GIS
9:50 AM 10:05 AM 15-minute break  
10:05 AM 10:25 AM The Climate Extremes Index: A Southeast U.S. Perspective Karin L. Gleason, NCDC
10:30 AM 10:50 AM A Dicey Situation: Are Freezing Rain Patterns Changing In The Southeast United States? Chris Fuhrmann and Charles Konrad, SERCC
10:55 AM 11:15 AM Effects of Pacific Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Anomalies on the Climate of Southern South Carolina and Northern Coastal Georgia Joe Calderone, Whitney Albright and Frank Alsheimber, NWS CHS
11:20 AM 11:45 AM Development of New Snowstorm Indices and a New GIS Snowstorm Database at the National Climatic Data Center Mike Squires, NCDC, Clay Tabor, UNCA, and Anna Wilson, STG Inc.
11:50 AM 1:10 PM Lunch (80 minutes)  
1:10 PM 1:30 PM Advances in NOAA Data and Services Distribution through Drought and Climate Portals Mike Brewer and Jason Symonds, NCDC
1:35 PM 1:55 PM Developing a Reference Crop Evapotranspiration Climatology for the Southeastern United States Using the FAO Penman-Monteith Estimation Ryan Boyles, Heather A. Dinon and Gail Wilkerson, NC State Climate Office
2:00 PM 2:20 PM Coupling of Equatorial Pacific Conditions with Southeast U.S. River Discharge Larry Cahoon, UNCW
2:25 PM 2:45 PM Trends in Northeastern South Carolina's Coastal Climate with Regional & Global Phenomenon Ginger Ogburn-Matthews, USC Baruch Marine Lab
2:50 PM 3:05 PM 15-minute break  
3:05 PM 3:35 PM Communicating Climate and Climate Change Information for Integrated Decision Support at the County and Regional Level Greg Dobson and Jim Fox, UNCA
3:40 PM 4:00 PM Climate Change in NC: Observations and Outlook Ryan Boyles, NC State Climatologist
4:05 PM 4:15 PM Wrapup and Dismissal Tim Armstrong, NWS ILM


Climate Outreach Operational Climatology Climate Research Climate Change



Contact information:

Tim Armstrong
Meteorologist & Climate Focal Point
National Weather Service, Wilmington, NC
2015 Gardner Drive
Wilmington, NC 28405

phone: 910-762-8724 or 910-763-8331
email: timothy.armstrong@noaa.gov