LAURA M. EDWARDS
SDSU Extension and
Division of Atmospheric Sciences
Desert Research Institute
EDUCATION
M.S. Meteorology University of Maryland
B.A. Physics and French University of Minnesota
PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS
13 2 nd
Ave SE
Aberdeen, SD 57401
(605) 626-2870 laura.edwards@sdstate.edu
2003
1999
My areas of research include regional climate change and variability, including trends and extremes. In particular, I am interested in improving connections between climate research and services. I lead outreach efforts, and teach on the topics of weather, climate, and earth sciences.
EMPLOYMENT
December 2011-Present
Climate Field Specialist
South Dakota State University Extension, Aberdeen, SD
Interface with farmers, ranchers and communities to link climate research with their industries.
Perform agroclimate research in South Dakota. Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network (CoCoRaHS) co-state coordinator.
December 2011-Present
Affiliate Faculty
Division of Atmospheric Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV
November 2003-December 2011
Assistant Research Climatologist
Western Regional Climate Center, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV
Designed California Climate Data Archive website to streamline climate data access for the state.
Edit and write contributions for the California Climate Watch , a monthly online newsletter.
Collaborate in development of climate monitoring indices for California and other research projects in climatology. US Drought Monitor author, 2008-present. Community Collaborative
Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) state coordinator. Teach and develop college-level courses in weather and climate. Served as Faculty Senate Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary. Chairperson of
AMS Committee on Applied Climatology, meeting co-chair and committee member. Served as secretary of Northern Nevada AMS Chapter.
January-May 2003
Teaching Assistant
University of Maryland, College Park, MD
METO/GEOG/GEOL 123, a core undergraduate science course. Planned and taught two undergraduate discussion sections per week in global climate change. Course topics included carbon, tectonic and water cycles, ozone depletion problem, effects on human health and climate change policies.
January 2001-March 2003

Assistant State Climatologist
University of Maryland, Department of Meteorology, College Park, MD
Interacted with public and private parties to provide climate data and resources and maintained climate records. Redesigned and updated the Maryland State Climatologist website. Assisted
State Climatologist in preparing products for public distribution.
TECHNICAL SKILLS
Proficient in Microsoft Office, Mac OS and PC systems, ArcGIS, UNIX, Perl, HTML, email.
Knowledgeable in NCL, Photoshop, Clickers for classrooms, Fortran, social networking.
PUBLICATIONS

Edwards, L. M., various dates 2008-11 . United States Drought Monitor.
http://drought.unl.edu/dm/ . 16 Sep 2008, 7 Oct 2008, 13 Jan 2009, 20 Jan 2009, 17 Mar
2009, 5 May 2009, 11 Aug 2009, 18 Aug 2009, 16 Jun 2010, 22 Jun 2010, 5 Oct 2010, 12
Oct 2010, 1 Mar 2011, 8 Mar 2011, 15 Mar 2011, 9 Aug 2011, 16 Aug 2011, 23 Aug
2011.

Abatzoglou, J. T., K. T. Redmond and L. M. Edwards, 2009. Classification of Regional
Climate Variability in the State of California, Journal of Applied Meteorology and
Climatology , 48(8), 3596-3601.

Koslowski, D.R. and L.M. Edwards, 2007. An analysis and summary of the July 2006
Record-Breaking Heat Wave Across the State of California. National Weather Service
Western Region Technical Attachment No. 07-05.

Edwards, L. M. and K. T. Redmond, 2005. Climate factors on Colorado River Basin water supply. Chapter in Colorado River Basin Climate: Paleo, Present, Future , special publication for Association of California Water Agencies and Colorado River Water
Users Association Conferences, California Department of Water Resources, pp. 14-22.

Edwards, L. M., K. T. Redmond, G. D. McCurdy, D. R. Cayan, M. Tyree, and L. Riddle,
2005. CalClim: An accessible data archive to monitor California climate. Manuscript and presentation in 16th Conference on Climate Variability and Change, 85th AMS Annual
Meeting , 9-13 January 2005, San Diego, CA.
PRESENTATIONS

Edwards, L.M. and K. T. Redmond, 2012. Drought when it’s not obvious. Oral presentation at 92nd Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society , January 2012,
New Orleans, LA.

Edwards, L. M., A. G. Hallar, L. M. Avallone, H. Thiry, 2012. ASCENT: Mentorship, networking and resources for women in atmospheric sciences. Poster presentation at 92 nd
Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society, January 2012, New Orleans, LA.

Edwards, L. M., A. G. Hallar, L. M. Avallone, H. Thiry, 2011. Survey Says! Women rising above challenges in atmospheric sciences. Poster presentation at 2011 Fall Meeting of
American Geophysical Union, December 2011, San Francicso, CA.

Edwards, L. M., and K. T. Redmond, 2011. Lessons Learned from Monitoring Drought in

Data Sparse Regions in the United States. Poster presentation at 2011 Fall Meeting of
American Geophysical Union, December 2011, San Francisco, CA.

Edwards, L. M., K. T. Redmond, G. M. McCurdy, 2011. RAWS network products to improve western US drought monitoring. Oral presentation at 19 th
AMS Applied Climatology
Conference , July 2011, Asheville, NC.

Edwards, L. M., K. T. Redmond, 2011. Drought monitoring activities at the Western
Regional Climate Center. Oral presentation at the 2011 U. S. Drought Monitor Forum ,
Fairfax, VA, April 2011.

Edwards, L. M., 2011. Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network
(CoCoRaHS) and precipitation measurement in the Sierra Nevada. Invited speaker, American
Association of University Women, Reno, NV, March 2011.

Abatzoglou, J.T., K.T. Redmond, L.M. Edwards and A. Joros, Monitoring of drought in the western United States: metrics suitable for tracking drought historically and throughout the
21st century, AMS Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA Jan. 2011.

Edwards, L. M., A. G. Hallar, L. M. Avallone, H. Thiry, 2010. Increasing retention of early career female atmospheric scientists. Poster presentation at 2010 Fall Meeting of American
Geophysical Union , December 2010, San Francisco, CA.

Edwards, L. M., K. T. Redmond, and J. T. Abatzoglou, 2010. WestWide Drought Tracker:
Drought monitoring and climate indices in the western US. Oral presentation at 18 th
AMS
Applied Climatology Conference , January 2010, Atlanta, GA.

Edwards, L. M., 2009. Drought monitoring in the Truckee Meadows. Oral presentation at
Truckee River Symposium , November 2009, Reno, NV.

Edwards, L. M., K. T. Redmond and J. T. Abatzoglou, 2009. WestWide Drought Tracker.
Oral presentation and panelist at 2009 U. S. Drought Monitor Forum , October 2009, Austin,
TX.

Edwards, L. M. and K. T. Redmond, 2009. Climate Data and Resources at the Western
Regional Climate Center. Oral presentation at National Weather Service Western Region
Climate Change Workshop , April 2009, Boulder, CO.

Edwards, L. M., 2008. Drought Monitoring in the Western US. Oral presentation at
WERA-102 workshop , November 2008, Davis, CA.

Edwards, L. M. and K. T. Redmond, 2008. Climate Differences by State in the Western
US. Oral presentation at 2008 North American Drought Monitor workshop , October 2008,
Ottawa, ONT, CAN.

Edwards, L. M. and K. T. Redmond, 2008. Challenges in Drought Monitoring in
California. Poster presentation at CEC Annual Climate Change Conference , September 2008,
Sacramento, CA.


Edwards, L. M. and K. T. Redmond, 2008. Oral presentation at 17 th
AMS Applied
Climatology Conference , August 2008, Whistler, BC, CAN.

Edwards, L. M., D. Koslowski, 2007. July 2006 state of California record-breaking heat wave. Poster presentation at 2007 Pacific Climate Workshop , 13-16 May 2007, Asilomar, CA.

Edwards, L. M., D. Koslowski, A. Bair, J. Juskie, W. Blier, and B. O’Hara, 2006. A review of the July 2006 heat wave in California. Poster presentation at 2006 American Geophysical
Union Fall Meeting.

Redmond, K. T. and L. M. Edwards, 2006. Climate tracking for California: what makes sense? Presentation at 3rd Biennial CALFED Bay-Delta Program Science Conference , 23-25
October 2006, Sacramento, CA.

Edwards, L. M., K. T. Redmond, J. T. Abatzoglou, 2006. Development of climate monitoring indices for California. Poster presentation at 3rd Annual California Energy
Commission Climate Change Conference, 13-15 September 2006, Sacramento, CA .

Edwards, L. M., 2006. The challenges of developing climate monitoring indices for
California. Poster presentation at PACLIM 2006 , 26-29 March 2006, Asilomar, CA.

Edwards, L. M., 2006. Careers in climatology at the Western Regional Climate Center.
Invited presentation, Nevada K-16 Education and Engineering Program (KEEP), February 14,
2005, Reno, NV.

Edwards, L. M. and K. T. Redmond, 2006. Development of climate monitoring indices for
California. Poster presentation at 18th Conference on Climate Variability and Change, 86th
AMS Annual Meeting , February 1, 2006, Atlanta, GA.

Edwards, L. M., 2005. California climate activities at the Western Regional Climate
Center. Invited presentation, Sacramento AMS Chapter meeting, October 20, 2005,
Sacramento, CA.

Edwards, L. M., 2005. California climate activities in support of WERA-102. Presentation at 2005 WERA-102 Workshop , 5-7 October 2005, Asilomar, CA.

Edwards, L. M., K. T. Redmond and G. D. McCurdy, 2005. The California Climate Data
Archive: an assessment after 18 months. Presentation at 15th Conference on Applied
Climatology , 20-24 June 2005, Savannah, GA.

Edwards, L. M. and K. T. Redmond, 2005. An experiment in state climate services: the
CalClim project. Presentation at 15th Conference on Applied Climatology, 20-24 June 2005,
Savannah, GA.

Edwards, L. M., 2005. CalClim: monitoring California climate. Presentation at California
Air Resources Board Seminar Series , April 19, 2005, Sacramento, CA.


Edwards, L. M., 2005. CalClim: monitoring California climate. Presentation at University of California-Davis Atmospheric Science Seminar Series , April 18, 2005, Davis, CA.

Edwards, L. M., D. R. Cayan, K. T. Redmond, G. D. McCurdy, L. Riddle and M. M.
Tyree, 2004. CalClim: An accessible data archive to monitor California climate. Presentation at Special Focus: Advances in Data Acquisition, Management, Analysis and Display, 2004
AGU Fall Meeting , 13-17 December 2004, San Francisco, CA.

Edwards, L. M., 2004. CalClim: An accessible data archive to monitor California climate.
Presentation at 3rd Biennial CALFED Bay-Delta Program Science Conference , 4-6 October
2004, Sacramento, CA.

Edwards, L. M., D. R. Cayan, L. Riddle, K. T. Redmond, G. D. McCurdy, 2004. California
Climate: an accessible data archive to monitor California climate. Poster presentation at 1st
Annual California Energy Commission Climate Change Conference , 9-10 June 2004,
Sacramento, CA.

Edwards, L. M., K. T. Redmond, and G. D. McCurdy, 2004. CalClim: An accessible data archive to monitor California climate. Invited presentation, DRI Division of Atmospheric
Sciences Seminar Series , June 4, 2004, Reno, NV.

Edwards, L. M., D. R. Cayan, L. Riddle, K. T. Redmond, G. D. McCurdy, 2004. CalClim: the California Climate Data Archive and Climate Watch. Poster presentation at PACLIM
2004, 28-31 March 2004, Asilomar, CA.

SELECTED FUNDED PROJECTS

Edwards, L. M., 2012-15. Water balance and drought tolerance in corn, $30,000, Pioneer
CMRA.

Edwards, L. M., K. T. Redmond, J. A. Abatzoglou, 2008-2012. WestWide Drought
Tracker, $255,000, NOAA TRACS.

Hallar, A. G., L. M. Edwards, L. M. Avallone, H. Thiry, 2008-2011. Atmospheric Science
Collaborations and Enriching NeTworks (ASCENT), $278,000, National Science
Foundation ADVANCE.

K. T. Redmond, L. M. Edwards, G. M. McCurdy, 2005-08. Climate Assessment for the
Sierra Network, $24,000. National Park Service.

L. M. Edwards and K. T. Redmond, 2008-2011. U. S. Drought Monitor author and U.S.
Drought Portal products. Ongoing, total budget over $405,000, about $120,000 represents my contribution. NOAA/NIDIS.

K. T. Redmond, California Climate Data Archive and Climate Monitoring for California,
$662,000. Ongoing, California Energy Commission and Scripps Institution of
Oceanography.
COURSES TAUGHT

ATMS 117: Introduction to Meteorology, Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno,
NV

ATMS/GEOG 121: Global Climate Change and its Environmental Impacts, University of
Nevada, Reno, NV (Co-developed and taught)

Significant guest lectures: ATMS 792: Hydrometeorology, ATMS 412/612: Air Pollution,
University of Nevada, Reno, NV

ATMS 7xx: Weather and Climate of the Intermountain West, University of Nevada, Reno,
NV (in development for Spring 2012), also supported by NSF EPSCoR Climate Change
PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES
• American Meteorological Society (AMS)
• American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• American Association of State Climatologists (AASC)

South Dakota County Agricultural Agents Association
SELECTED EXTERNAL PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Chair, AMS Applied Climatology Committee, 2010-2012. o Committee Member, AMS Applied Climatology Committee, 2007-2012. o Conference Co-Chair, AMS Applied Climatology and Mountain Meteorology
Conference, August 2008, Whistler, BC, Canada o Conference Co-Chair, AMS Applied Climatology Conference, January 2010,
Atlanta, GA.

Secretary, AMS Northern Nevada Chapter, 2007-09. Member 2006-2012.

South Dakota State co-Coordinator, Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow
Network (CoCoRaHS), January 2012-present.


Nevada State Coordinator, Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network
(CoCoRaHS), March 2007-2011.

Numerous local school outreach visits: o Our Lady of the Snows 2 nd
grade (3 years) o Yvonne Shaw Middle School career fair (2 years) o Galena High School career fair o Marvin Moss Elementary 2 nd
grade classes (4 years) o Jessie Beck Elementary 2 nd
grade

International Science and Engineering Fair judge, 2009.

Northern Nevada Regional Science Fair judge, 3 years

Member, Earth Science Women’s Network, 2008-present.

Editor, 2006 and 2007 editions of the American Association of State Climatologists
Annual Report, The State Climatologist.

Coordinator/Organizer, 2006 WERA-102 Workshop , October 31-November 2, 2006, Reno,
NV.

Coordinator, Regional NWS and WRCC Partner Workshop, August 2006, Reno, NV and
August 2010, Reno, NV.

Participant, 2005-07 and 2009 American Association of State Climatologists Meeting .

Proposal Review Panelist for a NOAA Grant, May 2006.

Participant, Annual California Energy Commission Climate Change Conference , 2004-
2008, Sacramento, CA.

Participant, NOAA Data Users’ Workshop, 11-13 May 2005, Asheville, NC.
INSITUTIONAL INTERNAL ACTIVITIES

Chair, DRI Faculty Senate, 2010-11. Activities include: plan and lead Faculty Senate meetings; serving as DRI Faculty representative at NSHE Board of Regents meetings; meet regularly with the Chancellor, President and other executives at DRI to coordinate faculty and administration joint activities; attend DRI Foundation meetings; ensure faculty representation. o Vice Chair, 2009-10. o Secretary 2008-09. o Committee membership: Faculty Senate Executive Committee, Academic
Committee, Institutional Project Assignment, ad hoc Promotion Review, ad hoc
Communications, DRI Research Advisory Council, Executive Staff, Institutional
Bylaws and Guidance.

Member, DRI Faculty Web Editorial Committee, 2009-2011.

Committee Member, DAS Executive Director hire, 2011.

Committee Member, FSO Grants and Contracts hire, 2010.

Committee Chair, CEFA Postdoctoral Fellow hire, 2007.

Committee Chair, WRCC Staff Computer Scientist hire, 2005.

Committee Member, CEFA Assistant Research Programmer hire, 2004.

Weather and Climate booth, DRI Open House, Las Vegas, NV, 2009 and 2006.

Weather and Climate booth, DRI Open House, Reno, NV, 2009 and 2005.