Annual California Extreme Precipitation Symposium (CEPSYM)

The California Extreme Precipitation Symposium (CEPSYM) is an informal day of scientific and technical presentations meant to increase our knowledge and understanding of extreme precipitation events. Goals of CEPSYM are to improve flood risk management planning and increase warning time for large floods.

Theme: Anticipating and Planning for California Floods – Past and Future

As the 30th CEPSYM event, speakers and attendees will look back at what has been learned over the past 30 years about extreme precipitation events in the California and the American River basin and will look forward to the questions that remain.

Research meteorologists and hydrologists connected with the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) located within the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have researched the historic record floods in California. They identified atmospheric rivers (AR) as the source of all major flood events starting with the Great Flood of 1861-1862 and extending to the present.

The impacts of climate change are projected to increase flood risk in California from ARs. This potential prompts a look at past assumptions about flood risk, comparing them to the future projections in the American River, Sacramento River, San Joaquin River, and Truckee River watersheds.

The day concludes with three panel members representing Federal, State, and local agency perspectives to discuss the topic: How does society plan for anticipated future flood risks?

WEST Presence:

• Staff Engineers Lindsay Otto and Caileen Yu will be attending.
• WEST is pleased to sponsor this event.