California Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting
Topic: California Snow Surveys and Water Supply
Forecasting
Speakers: Sean de Guzman, P.E., M.S.: Manager of
the Flood Operations Section at the California Department of Water
Resources (DWR)
When: Friday, October 18th, 2024, 12 pm to 1pm
Where: Virtual (via Zoom)—Link to virtual
seminar to be sent upon RSVP
The recording of the webinar is available here.
Topic Overview
As California's climate changes and those changes result in more and more
frequent extreme weather events, the Department of Water Resources (DWR)
is changing the way it observes and forecasts weather and hydrologic
conditions. Partnerships with the research community enable DWR to
incorporate advances to ensure a forecasting framework that can adapt at
the pace of a changing climate. DWR's California Cooperative Snow
Surveys is working with the research community to develop an operational
framework for climate resilient forecasting.
The goals for the framework are to transition to spatially explicit,
physically based, and climate informed modeling tools, such as watershed
models that simulate the physical processes of snow accumulation and
melt and incorporate forecasts, and to create an integrated forecast
platform that allows easier visual inspection of observed conditions,
high-resolution near-term forecasting, standard weather forecasting,
week 2 to 4 outlooks, sub-seasonal to seasonal outlooks, and water year
outlooks.
Sean de Guzman, DWR's manager of the Flood Operations Section, will
discuss the history behind the California Cooperative Snow Surveys
Program, snow survey procedures, Aerial Remote Sensing of Snow (ARSS)
Program activities, and the roadmap for developing a climate resilient
forecasting framework.
About the Speaker
Sean de Guzman is the manager of the Flood
Operations Section at the California Department of Water
Resources (DWR). He has worked for DWR since 2007 and in the
Hydrology and Flood Operations Branch since January 2011. He
oversees the Department's statewide flood emergency response and
preparedness programs. He also serves as program manager for the
Flood Emergency Response Grant Program that has awarded over $45
million in funding to local agencies to improve regional
self-reliance. He worked in the Snow Surveys and Water Supply
Forecasting Unit from 2013-2023.
While managing the Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting
team, he oversaw seasonal water supply forecasting for
California's major reservoirs including the Bulletin 120 and
Water Supply Index forecasts; hydrologic model development;
snowpack measurements through manual snow surveys and automated
snow sensors; and the development of tools and products for data
analysis, analytics, management, collection, reporting, and
dissemination.
Sean was also a part of the team leading California's utilization
of proven and emerging technologies and partnerships to improve
forecasts of precipitation, snowpack, and runoff; support
efficient water management; and help estimate the impacts of
climate change as outlined in DWR's Roadmap for a Climate
Resilient Forecasting Framework. He has been featured in various
media outlets representing DWR and discussing California's
hydrologic conditions and was named the "Snow Man" by Politico.
He is a licensed professional engineer and earned his Bachelor's
and Master's degrees in Civil Engineering from California State
University, Sacramento.
