Mid-Atlantic Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) Strategic Planning Meeting
9:00am - 3:30pm
Meeting Objective
NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) along with Federal, tribal, state, regional, and local partners in the Mid-Atlantic will host a kick-off strategic planning meeting to launch the Mid-Atlantic Drought Early Warning System on Thursday, April 9, 2026 at U.S. Geological Survey’s Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Water Science Center in Catonsville, MD. The purpose of this meeting is to bring together key stakeholders from across Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to begin strategic planning for a Mid-Atlantic Drought Early Warning System that develops and delivers usable, reliable, and timely drought and water-related information to the region.
In 2024, heat and a lack of rainfall led to widespread drought across Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. For some locations, the 2024-2025 drought was the worst the region had experienced in more than two decades. Significant impacts were felt across both natural and managed landscapes, as well as multiple sectors, including agriculture, mining, public health, and water utilities. Parts of the region remain in severe drought in Winter 2026.
In response to these conditions and impacts, NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), in partnership with the Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC) and other Federal and state agency partners and watershed organizations across the mid-Atlantic hosted a special drought webinar in September 2024 and a series of listening sessions in February/March 2025 with regional, state, and local partners to discuss drought conditions in the region, impacts of the drought, response and preparedness resources, outlooks for the coming months, and priorities towards building earlier drought warnings and long-term drought resilience. Feedback from these listening sessions was captured in the 2024-2025 Mid-Atlantic Drought Assessment (PDF) released in September 2025.
What we heard from these stakeholder-driven events was clear: building drought early warning capacity in the Mid-Atlantic region is vital to proactively managing drought risk and building resilience to future drought and extreme weather events. Please join NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC), State Climatologists, and Watershed Organizations in the Mid-Atlantic Region, and others at the Mid-Atlantic Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) Strategic Planning Meeting on April 9. See details below for more information!
Agenda
Agenda is coming soon.
Registration
There is no registration fee to attend this meeting.
Please register by March 11, 2026 so that we may adequately plan for parking and meeting accommodations with our partners. Once the meeting room capacity has been reached, virtual attendance will remain an option but will only offer limited participation capabilities.
Meeting Venue
USGS MD-DE-DC Water Science Center
5522 Research Park Drive
Catonville, MD 21228
Getting There
Free and ample parking is available onsite. Guests can park in the lot surrounding the building.
The meeting location is about a 10 minute drive from Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) Airport, and near the BWI Marshall Airport Amtrak/MARC station.
The meeting location was selected to help minimize the need for overnight travel. If needed, please make your own hotel arrangements, and convenient options are available around nearby BWI Airport. Limited travel support may be available for non-Federal attendees. Travel support is not reimbursable, and must be approved ahead of time. Please contact Elizabeth Ossowski at elizabeth.ossowski@noaa.gov with questions or requests.
Breakfast and Lunch
A light continental breakfast and boxed lunches will be provided.
NOTE: Federal attendees and those on federal travel orders - Please note that NOAA regulations prohibit UCAR from providing meals to federal employees, except NSF employees. Therefore, it is requested that federal employees contribute $17.00 for lunch.
Please note that UCAR accepts Visa and MasterCard only; see Meal Payment Information (for Federal Employees) below.
Also, please note that some US government credit cards and travel credit cards have restrictions placed on them by your agency regarding which merchant ID number categories they may be used for. Such restrictions may prohibit you from paying online, due to UCAR's merchant ID number category, which is "educational establishment." Please see your administrative officer if you have any questions or encounter problems online.
Meal Payment Information (for Federal Employees)
Please note that UCAR accepts only Visa and MasterCard.
-
Under "Select an item or event to pay," choose from the drop-down menu "NIDIS Mid-Atlantic DEWS Meeting - Meal Fee $17.00," and then click on the "Process Payment" button.
-
On the following screen, enter the amount (17) and fill in your billing information. When you are ready, click on the "Next" button and follow the prompts.
-
You will receive an e-mail confirming your payment and the amount paid.
Meeting Contacts
If you have questions about the meeting, please contact Elizabeth Ossowski at elizabeth.ossowski@noaa.gov.
Questions about logistics? Contact Jessica Martinez
