USGS to discuss potential for 'ARkStorms' at Lake Tahoe

Submitted by Editor on Sat, 01/12/2013 - 9:02am
Event Date: 
January 31, 2013 - 6:00pm
By Heather Segale

Flooding in all quarters. Decades worth of erosion in a few weeks. Devastating landslides and avalanches. Hurricane force winds and tree falls. Road, power, and business outages. And then the real impacts to Lake Tahoe and ecosystems begin.

It sounds like the script to an apocalyptic movie, but the ARkStorm scenario described by USGS hazards experts could really happen. An ARkStorm event would be catastrophic - but it does not have to be. The USGS is now working with local communities to use the science, technology, expertise and meteorological data behind the ARkStorm scenario to test the resiliency of communities and expose vulnerabilities usually only realized following catastrophic events. Modeling such an extreme event allows officials at all levels to be prepared when disaster strikes.

A presentation addressing the possibility will be at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences on the Sierra Nevada College campus, 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31. No-host bar opens at 5:30 p.m.

Time: No-host bar opens 5:30 p.m. Presentation begins 6 p.m. the cost is $5. Presenter are Dale Cox and Michael Dettinger, U.S. Geological Survey.

Dale A. Cox is Regional Hazards Coordinator for the USGS Pacific Region and Region IX Chair of the Department of Interior, Regional Emergency Coordination Council. Michael Dettinger is a research hydrologist for the USGS and a research associate at the Climate, Atmospheric Sciences and Physical oceanography Division at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif.

— Writer Heather Segale directs the education and outreach programs for the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. She can be reached at (775) 881-7562, tercinfo@ucdavis.edu.