January 2026 SW Climate Podcast - Weather’s Been Weird

Special Edition SW Climate Podcast - Guest Chuck Maxwell & Fire Weather

Recorded 05/13/2026, Aired 06/09/2026   In this special edition of the Southwest Climate Podcast, hosts Zack Guido and Mike Crimmins have guest Chuck Maxwell join to talk about fire weather.  Chuck brings his multi-decadal subject matter expertise from the world of fire management and answers all the burning questions from our hosts.  Hear how fire management operations work in the Southwest and how climate conditions play into decision making.  You’ll also get to hear what this summer might look like for fire and if the monsoon will bring any relief.     Mentions: CLIMAS - Chuck Maxwell Profile [https://climas.arizona.edu/person/charles-chuck-maxwell] NIFC - Southwest Coordination Center (SWCC) Website [https://gacc.nifc.gov/swcc/] NIFC - National Interagency Coordination Center: Outlooks [https://www.nifc.gov/nicc/predictive-services/outlooks] CLIMAS - Weather and Climate Information for Southwest Wildfire Management [https://climas.arizona.edu/fire/southwest-wildfire-management] Southwest U.S. Burn Period Tracker [https://cales.arizona.edu/climate/SWBurnPeriod/]

Special Edition SW Climate Podcast - 2025 E&S Fellows

Welcome to this special episode of the Southwest Climate Podcast with guest hosts: Gigi Owen & Christina Greene.  In this special episode, we bring you 3 guests that were all part of the CLIMAS Environment & Society Fellowship [https://climas.arizona.edu/es-fellowship/environment-society-graduate-fellows-program] program over the past year.  A lot of the science that CLIMAS researchers do is done collaboratively with and for our community partners so that the science that we do ends up being useful to decision-making and policy development and planning.  Our Fellowship program offers University of Arizona graduate students the opportunity to take this kind of collaborative approach to address environmental and societal problems.  Our fellows are here today to share more about their work and what they've been up to over the past year. 2025 CLIMAS Environment & Society Fellows Lois Ann Polashenski [https://climas.arizona.edu/person/lois-ann-polashenski] * We Are All Impacted by Pollution [https://climas.arizona.edu/news/we-are-all-impacted-pollution] * Overlooked Impacts of Circular Economies: Copper Slag Repurposing in Cottonwood, Arizona [https://climas.arizona.edu/news/overlooked-impacts-circular-economies-copper-slag-repurposing-cottonwood-arizona] Alyssa Rosenbaum [https://climas.arizona.edu/person/alyssa-rosenbaum] * From Lasagna to Lettuce: A Journey into Fresh Produce Safety [https://climas.arizona.edu/news/lasagna-lettuce-journey-fresh-produce-safety] * Where Science and Community Meet [https://climas.arizona.edu/news/where-science-and-community-meet] A.G. Steig [https://climas.arizona.edu/person/ag-steig] * In Fire’s Footprint [https://climas.arizona.edu/news/fires-footprint] * Ecological Fire with Prescribed Burn Associations [https://climas.arizona.edu/news/ecological-fire-prescribed-burn-associations] Talitha Neesham-McTiernan [https://climas.arizona.edu/person/talitha-neesham-mctiernan] (*Unable to attend podcast recording) * Mapping the Missing Half? [https://climas.arizona.edu/news/mapping-missing-half] Mapping in the meantime: on community-engaged research when the ground shifts [https://climas.arizona.edu/news/mapping-meantime-community-engaged-research-when-ground-shifts]

May 2026 SW Climate Podcast - Super? Mega? Weird: El Niño & Monsoon

Recorded 05/15/2026, Aired 05/19/2026 In this month’s Southwest Climate Podcast, hosts Zack Guido and Mike Crimmins answer what a strong El Niño could mean for the monsoon.  They do a quick recap of the first half of May.  And then it’s off to the races with a look at: sea surface temperatures in the Pacific, ONI vs. RONI, ENSO’s scientific history, monsoon and its interaction with East Pacific tropical activity, then finally a winter preview.  Should be a fun and interesting few seasons to watch unfold! Also, Zack gives a plug for the Monsoon Fantasy Forecast Game [https://monsoonfantasy.arizona.edu/home] which will include a new weekly tournament feature this year. Mentions NOAA CPC - ENSO Strength Probabilities [https://cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso/roni/strengths/]   Tropical Tidbits [https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/models/]   WebberWeather [https://x.com/webberweather]   NOAA CPC - Outlooks [https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/]   Google - Weather Lab: Cyclones [https://deepmind.google.com/science/weatherlab]    Paper “North American Monsoon Response to Antecedent Soil Moisture and Snow in the Colorado Plateau” [https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2024JD043026]   Paper “Tropical Ocean Contributions to California’s Surprisingly Dry El Niño of 2015/16” [https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/30/24/jcli-d-17-0177.1.xml]

April 2026 SW Climate Podcast - Mind-blowing March Meltdown

Recorded 04/03/2026, Aired 04/07/2026 Hosts Zack Guido and Mike Crimmins go full coroner in this month’s episode of the Southwest Climate Podcast and do an autopsy of the record-setting March heat wave.  Expect fluid dynamics, conservation of angular momentum, and level of divergence type of nerding for this deep dive. They go over the heat impacts to snowpack and forecasted streamflow, and the end of month precipitation event which looked monsoonal.  Lastly there is some excitement for the upcoming super El Niño that’s brewing.  Stick around on this long-ish one for a full explainer on the Pacific Decadal Oscillation - at the 1:02:43 mark.    Mentions: Climate Perspectives - Western Region [https://sercc.oasis.unc.edu/Map.php?region=wrcc] Paper: “Synthesis of Publications on the Anomalous June 2021 Heat Wave in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada” [https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/106/6/BAMS-D-24-0188.1.xml] USDA - NRCS: Snowpack & Streamflow [https://nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov/imap/] RainLog [https://rainlog.org/] NOAA - CPC: El Niño Southern Oscillation [https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/MJO/enso.shtml] NOAA - NCEI: Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) [https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/pdo/]

March 2026 SW Climate Podcast - What’s Your Favorite Month?

Recorded 03/03/2026, Aired 03/04/2026   In this month’s episode of the Southwest Climate Podcast, Hosts Zack Guido and Mike Crimmins rank their favorite months of the year - and June gets no love.  They recap February’s weather which was high and dry but not much else.  There’s a discussion on ENSO with a deep dive into a couple related papers of note.  And with the end of meteorological winter they cover the bleak snowpack conditions in the west. Towards the end there is a look into the models to see what is on the horizon - including for the monsoon.  Stick around for an announcement on the 2026 Southwest Monsoon Fantasy Forecasts game with a lot of new exciting features - you won’t want to miss!     Mentions:  NOAA - Climate Prediction Center: ENSO Discussion [https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/MJO/enso.shtml] Paper: “Southern Hemisphere Surface Warming Drives Southwestern U.S. Precipitation according to AI-Informed Climate Model Simulations” [https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/38/24/JCLI-D-25-0176.1.xml] Paper: “Anthropogenic Intensification of Cool-Season Precipitation Is Not Yet Detectable Across the Western United States” [https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023JD040537] USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service: NWCC Interactive Map [https://nwcc-apps.sc.egov.usda.gov/imap/] NOAA - Climate Prediction Center: Season Forecasts [https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/] National Multi-Model Ensemble (NMME) [https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/NMME/] International Multi-Model Ensemble  [https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/people/wd52qz/c3s/]