Despite its potential, research is often critiqued for being not as usable for decision making in practice. This guide provides tangible, tested ways for making science more usable based on our experience in the Western Water Assessment as well as other input. It also highlights examples of researchers at CU Boulder who have produced usable research to serve practical needs.

Overall, the evaluation will address the following goals identified in the upper Colorado River Basin drought early warning system (UCRB DEWS) annual CIRES reports: service products; determined the value of drought-related information; and determined the value of specific products at different times during the water year.

This report is a synthesis of climate science relevant for management and planning for Colorado's water resources. It focuses on observed climate trends, climate modeling, and projections of temperature, precipitation, snowpack, and streamflow. Climate projections are reported for the mid-21st century because this time frame is the focus of adaptation strategies being developed by the State of Colorado and other water entities.

The current El Niño event is very strong, and is expected to affect weather around the globe, and in Colorado, through next spring. The impacts of El Niño are more complex over Colorado than other parts of the West. Strong El Niño conditions improve the odds for wetter-than-normal conditions in most parts of Colorado, especially in fall and spring. However, strong El Niño conditions also tend to bring dry mid-winters to our North-Central mountains....