I traveled to our field site, Coyhaique Alto, a couple times to download data from my two weather stations. My adviser and I installed an additional set of soil moisture sensors so that we can construct the ‘capillary pressure-saturation’ curve for the soils at the site; that is, calculate the hydrologic parameters necessary for modeling flow through the soil.

I presented at a fair in Coyhaique, Chile. The event was organized by the Artistas Itinerantes del Sur, a group of artisans in the region that requested speakers on environmental topics. I spoke for about 10 minutes on recent trends in precipitation and temperature at Coyhaique and Puerto Aysen, and related these trends to the Antarctic Oscillation or Southern Annular Mode, the primary source of interannual variability in the southeast Pacific.

In the meantime, I’ve been developing a side project related to analyzing public precipitation, temperature, and streamflow data to provide the Direccion General de Aguas with a simple forecasting methodology. I’ve been working with Jorge O’Kuinghtton at the local office of the DGA to make this most impactful and useful. I plan to continue monitoring our field site and collecting data, as well as begin modeling flow at the site once I obtain the necessary soil moisture data.

The most positive impact in Chile this month? At the fair in Coyhaique, I concisely communicated current climate trends in the region to a non-scientific audience. In meeting with the DGA, I am providing support to a forecasting agency that generally doesn’t have spare time and resources for climate-related projects.
The two photos of the weather station were recently taken at our deforested/impacted field site in Coyhaique Alto. As you can see, the site has received snow recently, but there is little accumulation. The remaining photos were taken around the region – winter is here!