Erin Towler

Erin Towler is a Project Scientist in C3WE with research interests spanning the water-climate-decision interface. Erin uses her expertise in water resources and passion for use-inspired research to make weather and climate risks relevant to local water and natural resource management. Her work has contributed to understanding climate risks to water quantity and quality, with applications in water supply and flood prediction and forecasting. Erin leads C3WE’s Climate and Weather Extremes Tutorial, which provides participants with knowledge and tools to conduct extreme weather research.  Erin received her PhD in Water Resources Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2010 and is a Postdocs Applying Climate Expertise (PACE) alumni. Erin serves on the U.S. CLIVAR Predictability, Predictions, and Applications Interface (PPAI) Panel.

As a Project Scientist at NCAR, Erin has developed a diverse research portfolio. Current research projects have focused on decadal variability and predictability, including the Understanding Decision-Climate Interactions on Decadal Scales (UDECIDE) project, which developed an interdisciplinary research framework towards using decadal climate predictions in water management. Erin has applied decadal predictions to the water sector; for instance, showing the utility of decadal temperature predictions for streamflow prediction in the Colorado River Basin. Working with U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water managers, Erin is leading research to understand the predictability of monsoon precipitation, including extremes, in the U.S. Southwest, and its potential role in their future water supply. Erin also works on streamflow evaluation of the WRF-Hydro modeling system.