49th Annual Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop (CDPW)
Joint Meeting UPDATE Feb 2026:
2026 Subseasonal to Seasonal Analysis, Prediction, and Services Webinar Series
About
History
Abstract Submission
Contact Us
We are pleased to announce the NOAA's Subseasonal to Seasonal (S2S) Analysis, Prediction, and Services virtual seminar series that will showcase speakers from the postponed 2025 Joint Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop (CDPW) and Climate Predictions Applications Science Workshop (CPASW). The webinars will include both prediction and services-related topics, including flash drought monitoring and prediction, heat wave prediction and attribution, precipitation prediction, and the use of AI for hydroclimate monitoring and predictability. We will not be able to record the webinars but will post the presentations online with author permission. Please fill out this Google Form to receive information on registration for the webinar series. See presenter bios below.
Feb 25, 2026
Wednesday 2:00pm Eastern
Flash Drought Monitoring
A Multivariate Flash Drought Climatology for the Contiguous United States based on the Flash Drought Intensity Index Jason Otkin, University of Wisconsin – Madison
Near Real-Time Flash Drought Monitoring
Jordan Christian, University of North Dakota
March 25, 2026
Wednesday 2:00pm Eastern
Drought Monitor - Origins and Evolution
The U.S. Drought Monitor: An Origin Story
Mark Svoboda, National Drought Mitigation Center/University of Nebraska-Lincoln
The United States Drought Monitor: A Continuous Development Process
Brian Fuchs, National Drought Mitigation Center
April 9, 2026
Thursday 3:00pm Eastern
AI to Advance Hydroclimate Monitoring and Prediction
Identifying Forecasts of Opportunity for Subseasonal Precipitation Predictions using Explainable Machine Learning
Marybeth Arcodia, University of Miami
Advancing Real-Time Flood Monitoring using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Hydroclimate Decision Support Ehsan Bhuiyan, CPC/ERT
April 29, 2026
Wednesday 2:00pm Eastern
AI to Advance Hydroclimate Monitoring and Prediction
CPC’s official Week 3-4 Outlook is nearly 10 years old. How has it fared?
Jon Gottschalck, NWS Climate Prediction Center
CPC Global Drought Early Warning System for Food Security: Current Status and Challenges
Li Xu, NWS Climate Prediction Center
Presenter Bios:
Jason Otkinis an Associate Research Professor at the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has used various observational and modeling datasets to enhance our understanding of flash drought characteristics and to improve our ability to provide early warning of their development. He has also held focus group meetings with farmers and ranchers across the central U.S. to better understand their drought vulnerabilities and how they could use drought early warning information when making their management decisions. Jason will be presenting “A Multivariate Flash Drought Climatology for the Contiguous United States based on the Flash Drought Intensity Index”
Jordan Christianis an Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of North Dakota. His work explores subseasonal-to-seasonal weather and climate extremes, with a particular emphasis on flash drought. He examines the frequency, evolution, drivers, and impacts of these events on local to global scales, using a combination of reanalysis data, satellite observations, and climate models. Jordan will be presenting on “Near Real-Time Flash Drought Monitoring”.
History of CPASW Test
The annual Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop (CPASW), initiated in 2002 by the NOAA National Weather Service Climate Services Division, brings together a group of climate researchers, climate product producers, and climate information users to share developments in research and applications of climate predictions for societal decision-making. A unique planning team, consisting of several NOAA climate services partners, organizes and hosts CPASW at a different location each year to ensure varying climate application focuses, and both regional and national perspectives.
Links to previous CPASW workshops and information for the latest:
2025 CPASW - CDPW Joint Workshop Call for Abstracts
**Now hosted as Subseasonal to Seasonal Analysis, Prediction, and Services Webinar Series**
It is with great pleasure that we announce the joint NOAA's 49th Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop (CDPW49) and 22nd Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop (CPASW22). The workshop will be hosted by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is co-hosted by the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the Climate Services Branch (CSB) of the National Weather Service (NWS).
The workshop will bring together a community to share developments in research and application of weather and climate information for societal decision-making. Participants will include researchers, service producers, resource managers, emergency managers, planners, practitioners, social scientists, and others making weather- and climate-sensitive decisions. To build a Climate-Ready Nation, contributors along the entire climate services value chain will need to work in partnership with each other and in service to our communities.
The workshop will include oral and poster presentations, lightning talks, invited speakers, panel sessions, and group discussions. This year's workshop will also feature a special session dedicated to honoring Richard Heim’s (NOAA) and Mark Brusberg’s (USDA) scientific achievements in drought science and services.
This meeting is currently being planned as a hybrid in person / virtual event, hoping to combine the benefits of a face-to-face meeting with the potential for broader virtual participation. At this time, we are planning to have all speakers and poster presenters on site in Lincoln, with the option for virtual attendance for those who would like to listen to workshop speakers without traveling to Lincoln. Early bird and discounted student registration rates will be available.
The Joint Workshop will focus on these 5 major themes:
Predictions, Predictability, and Forecast Verifications of Climate Variability:
Topics of interest include methods and approaches for diagnostics and attribution of climate anomalies and of extreme events, including heat waves, Arctic cold air outbreaks, drought, wildfires, and excessive precipitation/flooding - particularly for the Central U.S. Additional topics include forecast verifications, evaluation metrics and their communication to users, understanding predictability limits, and attributions via process-level diagnostics to physical mechanisms such as tropical variability, polar amplification, sudden stratospheric warmings, marine heat waves, land-atmosphere-ocean interactions, etc.
Advances in Improving Subseasonal-to-Seasonal (S2S) / Hydroclimate Prediction:
Topics include recent advancements in S2S dynamical forecast and hydroclimate prediction systems, including improvements in forecast models, initialization, and ensembling techniques; the development of statistical forecast approaches (machine learning / artificial intelligence [ML/AI]); and improving the prediction of climate and hazardous extremes on S2S timescales — particularly in the Central U.S. Other topics of interest include understanding and predicting drought, flood, water availability, water cycle extremes, water resource management, and using advances in precipitation prediction to improve hydroclimate decision support.
Use of Frontier Science and Technology to Advance Climate Science
Topics of interest include a) making use of AI/ML advances in technology to maximize science usability and efficiency of services for effective decision making; b) Social, behavioral, and economic science (SBES) contributions towards understanding user needs and service expectations; and c) enhancing service delivery and communication of climate predictions, to aid decision making by key stakeholders.
Drought Monitoring and Assessment
Topics of interest include recent advancements in drought monitoring science, including but not limited to, development of objective drought blends, drought assessment in a changing climate, development of new indices for better characterizing and monitoring of various drought types (e.g., flash drought, snow drought) and the study of related physical processes. Special session honoring Richard Heim (NOAA) and Mark Brusberg (USDA) highlighting their scientific achievements in drought science and services.
Climate-Agriculture Connections and Advancements
Topics of interest include a) developments in soil moisture monitoring utilizing the new Upper Missouri River Basin network and other new datasets; b) specialty and/or small-scale crop production; and c) climate-resilient agriculture.
