Rep. Neguse Announces Federal Funding for Drought and Flood Preparedness Research in Fort Collins & Boulder

Lafayette, CO — Today, Congressman Joe Neguse announced federal funding for groundbreaking drought and flood preparedness research underway at Colorado State University in Fort Collins and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder. The two projects located within Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District were competitively selected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Program Office (CPO) and will help improve NOAA monitoring and modeling capabilities through precipitation data development and analysis. 

In total, the CPO’s Climate Observations and Monitoring Program announced seven new three-year projects. The awarded projects, which total $1.2 million in Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) funding, work to better prepare communities for the impacts of climate-induced changes in the water cycle and increases in the risk of flooding, drought, and degraded water supplies for people and ecosystems. 

“The climate crisis is not only exacerbating water scarcity and drought conditions, but it is increasing the risk of other water-related natural disasters, including flooding. These conditions continue to seriously threaten environments and communities throughout our state and across the Colorado River Basin,” said Congressman Neguse. “Federal investments in research to better prepare communities on the frontline of this crisis allow us to tackle these issues head on—and I am grateful to NOAA for their continued support of groundbreaking research taking place in Fort Collins and Boulder.”

“NOAA’s commitment and funding is critical to advancing climate observation and monitoring. Colorado State University’s research in this arena will improve flood severity forecasting, which protects lives and property — an impact we can all appreciate,” said Christa Johnson, Interim Vice President of Research at Colorado State University. 

“At a time when climate change is altering longstanding precipitation patterns, our nation needs more reliable and timely monitoring of critical storm events, as well as of hazards such as floods and droughts. Given the importance to Colorado because of our dependence on water, this award marks a notable investment into the research needed to better predict and manage vital water resources, increase our resilience to environmental change, and ultimately protect lives and livelihoods,” said Antonio Busalacchi, President of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research.

The projects located in Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District include:

• Providing forecasters a climate context for water vapor profiles at Colorado State University: Atmospheric water vapor is the fuel for all kinds of precipitation. Although most precipitation data is available, there are still some gaps in how water vapor data is interpreted. This prevents forecasters from understanding and communicating the severity of a flood threat. This project will examine precipitable water data from several meteorological data sets and create multidecadal climate records.

• A next-generation multi-decadal to real-time probabilistic gridded precipitation dataset and integrated precipitation event database for CONUS at UCAR/NCAR: Observation-based precipitation products in the form of a grid are used throughout NOAA, mainly to produce numerical weather prediction models. However, there is still a need for newer precipitation datasets that will be suitable for long-term climate monitoring, extreme event analysis, model validation and improvement projects. This project will develop a real-time updating, multi-decadal gridded precipitation dataset along with an extreme event quantification database.

Congressman Joe Neguse, Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Colorado River Caucus, has been working to address water-related issues, enacting significant bills that invest in drought resilience and water management. Last month, he passed his bill, the Drought Preparedness Act, which addresses water scarcity and improves drought preparedness through the House Committee on Natural Resources. The bill, which now heads to the House Floor for consideration, reauthorizes the Reclamation States Emergency Drought Relief Act through 2028, allowing the Bureau of Reclamation to continue to minimize drought damages and improve water availability for those harmed by drought. Additionally, last year, Rep. Neguse was able to secure passage of his monumental legislative package, the Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act, through the House of Representatives. 

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