May 31, 2024

Guillaume Mauger named Washington State Climatologist

Guillaume Mauger has been named the next director of the Office of the Washington State Climatologist. Mauger’s appointment began earlier this month. Mauger succeeds Nick Bond, who retired from the role in February after nearly 14 years. Karin Bumbaco, deputy state climatologist, served as interim state climatologist from February to May. Currently a research scientist at the Climate Impacts Group, Mauger has 15 years of experience working in climate change impacts and adaptation in the Pacific Northwest with a focus on flooding and water availability.

UW atmospheric scientist participating in field campaign to improve Western snowfall, drought forecasts

University of Washington atmospheric scientist Lynn McMurdie has led campaigns to measure rain and snowfall in places ranging from Washington’s Olympic Peninsula to Argentina to the Eastern U.S. Now she’s among the leaders of a field campaign in Colorado to better understand and forecast snowfall in the mountains of the Western U.S. A scientific expedition this coming winter in Colorado’s Yampa Valley will improve forecasts of snowfall and estimates of how climate change will impact snowpack and water availability in mountainous regions of the West.

WhaleVis turns more than a century of whaling data into an interactive map

WhaleVis world map showing data on global whale catches and whaling routes.

Even though they’re the largest animals on earth, whales remain difficult to track. So experts often turn to historical whaling data to inform current research. A dataset maintained by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) contains detailed information on commercial whale catches — more than 2.1 million records, predominantly from 1880 until the IWC banned whaling in 1986. Yet for researchers, distilling that data can prove its own challenge.