This tool – and the science behind it – were designed to help users explore the basic question: when and where could climate change matter across the Pacific Northwest? This is a new approach to delivery of climate change information that focuses on identifying the time when climate change causes local conditions to deviate significantly from the past, which we call the Time of Emergence of climate change.

This tool presents the results of Time of Emergence analysis for 35 climatic variables during different times of the year, for counties, watersheds and major rivers of the Pacific Northwest. These results, combined with information on local sensitivities, design standards or critical thresholds, and the effort need to prepare for change, can be used to help prioritize decisions about when, where and for which climate change impacts preparatory actions are most urgent.

This prototype tool remains in development. Please email CIG (at) UW (dot) edu with comments or suggested improvements.