Enhanced capability to monitor drought using citizen weather stations

Slides used during our presentation at the EGU 2021 conference, in the session "HS4.2 - Drought and water scarcity: monitoring, modelling and forecasting to improve hydro-meteorological risk management ". You can check the information of the session in this link: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU21/session/39888#

Transcript

1. Enhanced capability to
   monitor drought using
   citizen weather stations
   I. Garcia-Marti, M. de Haij, H. Leijnse,
   JW. Noteboom, A. Overeem, G vd Schrier
   vEGU21, Session HS4.2
   Drought and water scarcity: monitoring, modelling
   and forecasting to improve hydro-meteorological
   risk management
   30th April 2021
   

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2. Background
   › Global warming: triggers or expands
   drought conditions at our planet
   › Netherlands: past several years we
   experienced drought conditions not
   measured since 1976.
   › KNMI: developed a cloud-based
   product showing the daily drought
   levels across country (2019):
   – Standard Precipitation Index (SPI)
   (McKee et al., 1993)
   – ~70 years of rainfall (1951-2010)
   › Present: Help decision-makers to
   assess meteorological drought and
   enable preventive measures
   

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3. Background
   › Third-party data: weather observations
   measured by citizens! European met offices
   are interested in 3PD observations.
   › Citizen weather stations: citizens monitoring
   weather in private spaces (e.g. home,
   schools) using semi-professional devices
   › KNMI: Partner of WOW initiative (UK) since
   2015, 900+ CWS in the network, 150+ M
   observations (2015 -2020)
   › Present: we studied the quality of
   temperature, wind speed and rainfall
   observations
   WOW-NL
   KNMI
   

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4. Research questions
   What if we combine the SPI with WOW observations?
   › What is the added value of 3PD
   observations (e.g. research, operational,
   economic) provide wrt official networks?
   › Assessing the possibility of providing
   higher resolution drought maps including
   WOW-NL data
   › Enable the possibility for underrepresented
   regions to obtain local drought metrics
   WOW-NL
   rainfall
   (2018-2019)
   daily gridded
   precipitation
   (1951-2011)
   SPI
   Calculations
   Calibrated
   model
   5-min
   interval
   aggregation
   Quality
   control
   QC’d WOW-
   NL rainfall
   Radar data at
   5-min interval
   SPI-WOW
   KNMI’s SPI DROUGHT INDEX
   SPI-WOW DROUGHT INDEX
   

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5. 5
   After QC, results show moderate positive correlation ☺
   But who are these dry stations?
   

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6. 6
   Random distribution suggests “faulty
   stations”… that do pass the QC
   

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7. 7
   Overlay official SPI vs WOW SPI Difference between two networks
   Visualizing skill
   (GIF animation, should move ☺)
   (colors should blend) (difference should be grey)
   

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8. 8
   Visualizing skill
   ~30km
   Good agreement between
   official and WOW SPI
   Is it a glitch of the WOW network, or
   is it that the official SPI is underestimating
   local drought conditions?
   

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9. Recap
   WOW-NL picks drought signal
   Pinpoint local drought conditions
   A thorough comparison is needed
   Value
   3PD might contribute to official products!
   Research: Hi-resolution indicators of drought risk
   Operations: underrepresented areas -> local drought
   Big picture
   Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems
   Hi-res weather warnings and forecast
   Climate Services
   Wrapping up
   

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10. Questions? ☺
    garciamarti@knmi.nl
    Thanks!
    10
    

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