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ICLR webinar to focus on challenges in understanding and projecting precipitation extremes


September 26, 2016   by Canadian Underwriter


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The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) will be holding a webinar workshop on the challenges in understanding and projecting precipitation extremes.

financial district under snowstormThe webinar, part of the ICLR’s Friday Forum series, will be held on Friday, Oct. 14 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST. It will feature Dr. Francis Zwiers, director of the Pacific Climate Impact Consortium at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.  His former roles include chief of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis and director of the Climate Research Division, both at Environment and Climate Change Canada.

A key challenge for societal adaptation to present and future climate is to reliably characterize the expected frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events and related quantities, such as extreme snow and wind loading of structures, said information from ICLR. This information is required for all types of infrastructure that are exposed to the elements, ranging from typical family dwellings and the streets and storm water handling systems that serve them to mega-projects such as the “Site-C” development on the Peace River.

This talk will first describe observed and projected changes in precipitation extremes from a global perspective.

“The broad evidence at these scales indicates that human influence on the climate system has intensified precipitation extremes in a manner that is consistent with warming, and that this will continue, supporting the notion that ‘stationarity is dead,’” the information said. “Nevertheless, the evidence is not yet very evident on local and regional scales, and this, coupled with large variability and limited observational records, makes the estimation of changes in the characteristics of extremes in the context of nonstationarity very difficult.”

RSVP: Tracy Waddington

Registration Link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8043719583060682753


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