Brian Fuchs

Brian Fuchs

  • Contact Information
  • My Story
  • Publications
  • Background
  • Interests
  • Grants

Contact Information

TitleClimatologist | NDMC Monitoring Coordinator
Faculty RankGeoscientist
Address824 South Hardin Hall
3310 Holdrege Street
Lincoln NE
68583–0988

East Campus
Phone
  • office: 402-472-6775
  • fax: 402-472-4915
E-mailbfuchs2@unl.edu
VitaeDownload file

 

Contact Preference

e-mail, phone, by appointment

Office Hours

M - F 7:30 a.m - 4:30 p.m. or by appointment

My Story

Hello, My name is Brian Fuchs and I'm a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC), which is housed within the School of Natural Resources.

I first came to SNR in May 2000, working as a climatologist for the High Plains Regional Climate Center. I started working with the National Drought Mitigation Center in December 2005. My job functions are quite broad, but I am mainly working on drought-related issues. The drought-related work concentrates on research involving mitigation, risk, assessment, and reporting of drought. As a Climatologist, I work on the applied research projects for the center as well as authoring the United States Drought Monitor with several others. My work interests are climate, drought, drought impacts, drought risk and assessment and snow events.

In my time at SNR, I have been involved with three committees. I was active on the Staff Professional Development Committee for three years, and chaired this committee for one year. I was also part of the SNR Internal Communications Committee. I served on the SNR Survey Committee until 2007.

I am from Nebraska and grew up in Columbus. I graduated from UNL in 1997 with a bachelor's from the meteorology/climatology program. I received my master's in 2000 from the Department of Geosciences here at UNL with a specialization in meteorology/climatology. My wife Jeni and I were married in 1996 and have two children. Reece was born in November 2001 and Brooklyn who was born in June 2005. I enjoy spending time with my family and I am a big football fan. Other activities that keep me busy include hunting, basketball, photography and cooking.

Selected Publications

Wardlow, B.D., M.A. Anderson, T. Tadesse, M. Svoboda, B. Fuchs, C. Hain, W. Crow, and M. Rodell. 2024. Remote Sensing of Drought: Satellite-Based Monitoring Tools for the United States. Chapter 3, Remote Sensing Handbook Vol. III: Water Resources, Disasters, and Urban: Monitoring, Modeling, and Mapping, 2nd edition, ed. P. Thenakenbail, Boca Raton, FL:CRC Press.
E Elias, B Fuchs, J Lisonbee, T Bernadt, V Martinez, T Haigh. (2023). Evolution of the Southwest Drought Learning Network: Collective Response to Exceptional Drought. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 104 (5), E935-E942. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-22-0017.1Online
Farahmand, A., Ray, S., Thrastarson, H., Licata, S., Granger, S., Fuchs, B. (2022). A Workshop on Using NASA AIRS Data to Monitor Drought for The US Drought Monitor. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Online
Leeper, R., Bilotta, R., Petersen, B., Stiles, C., Heim, R., Fuchs, B., Pratt, O., Palecki, M., Ansari, S. (2022). Characterizing U.S. Drought over the Past Twenty Years with the U.S. Drought Monitor. International Journal of Climatology, 42(12). https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/joc.7653Online
Benedict, T. D., Brown, J. F., Boyte, S. P., Howard, D. M., Fuchs, B. A., Wardlow, B. D., Tadesse, T., Evenson, K. A. (2021). Exploring VIIRS Continuity with MODIS in an Expedited Capability for Monitoring Drought-Related Vegetation Conditions. Remote Sensing. 13(6), 1210; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13061210Online
Fuchs, B. DroughtScape. Lincoln, NE: National Drought Mitigation Center. http://drought.unl.edu/NewsOutreach/DroughtScape.aspxOnline
Rippey, B., Fuchs, B., Simeral, D., Bathke, D., Heim, R., Svoboda, M. (2021). The Drought Monitor Comes of Age. Weatherwise, 74(2), 29 - 37. https://doi.org/10.1080/00431672.2021.1873000Online
Rippey, B., Fuchs, B., Simeral, D., Bathke, D., Heim, R., Svoboda, M. (2021). The Drought Monitor Comes of Age. Weatherwise, 74(2), 29-37. https://doi.org/10.1080/00431672.2021.1873000Online
Scanlon, B. R., Rateb, A., Pool, D. R., Sanford, W., Save, H., Sun, A., Long, D., Fuchs, B. A. (2021). Effects of climate and irrigation on GRACE-based estimates of water storage changes in major US aquifers. Environmental Research Letters, 16(9). https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac16ff/pdfOnline
Wang, H., Xu, L., Hughes, M., Chelliah, M., DeWitt, D. G., Fuchs, B. A., Jackson, D. L. (2021). Potential caveats in Land Surface Model evaluations using the U.S. Drought Monitor: roles of base periods and drought indicators. Environmental Research Letters, 17. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3f63/pdfOnline
Hartman, M. D., Parton, W. J., Derner, J. D., Schulte, D. K., Smith, W. K., Peck, D. E., Day, A., Del Grosso, S. J., Lutz, S., Fuchs, B., Chen, M., Gao (2020). Seasonal grassland productivity forecast for the U.S. Great Plains using Grass‐Cast. Ecosphere: An ESA Open Access Journal. https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.3280Online
Hoell, A., Parker, B.-A., Downey, M., Umphlett, N., Jensco, K., Akyuz, F. Adnan, Peck, D., Hadwen, T., Fuchs, B., Kluck, D., Edwards, L., Perlwitz, J., Eischeid, J., Deheza, V., Pulwarty, R., Bevington, K. (2020). Lessons Learned from the 2017 Flash Drought Across the U.S. Northern Great Plains and Canadian Prairies. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/aop/bamsD190272/bamsD190272.xmlOnline
Noel, M., D. Bathke, B. Fuchs, D. Gutzmer, T. Haigh, M. Hayes, M. Poděbradská, C. Shield, K. Smith, M. Svoboda. (2020) Linking Drought Impacts to Drought Severity at the State Level. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 101:E1312–E1321.Online
Smith, K., Burbach, M., Hayes, M., Guinan, P. E., Tyre, A., Fuchs, B. (2020). Whose ground truth is it? Harvesting lessons from Missouri’s 2018 bumper crop of drought observations. Weather, Climate, and Society. Volume 13: 227-244. doi: 10.1175/WCAS-D-19-0140.1Online
Tadesse, T., Hollinger, D. Y., Bayissa, Y. A., Svoboda, M., Fuchs, B., Zhang, B., Demisse, G., Wardlow, B., Bohrer, G., Clark, K., Desai, A., Gu, L., Noormets, A., Novick, K., Richardson, A. (2020). Forest Drought Response Index (ForDRI): A New Combined Model to Monitor Forest Drought in the Eastern United States. Advances in Remote Sensing for Global Forest Monitoring. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/21/3605Online
Bathke, D., Prendeville, H. R., Jacobs, A., Heim, R., Thoman, R., Fuchs, B. 2019. Defining Drought in a Temperate Rainforest. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.Online
Bathke, D., Prendeville, H., Jacobs, A., Heim, R., Thoman, R., Fuchs, B. 2019. Defining Drought in a Temperate Rainforest. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. December 2019: 2665-2668.Online
Peck, D., Derner, J., Parton, W., Hartman, M., Fuchs, B. 2019. Flexible stocking with Grass-Cast: A new grassland productivity forecast to translate climate outlooks for ranchers. Western Economic Forum. 17(1): 24-39.Online
Petersen, B., Fuchs, B., Hayes, M.J., Brusberg, M.D., Bathke, D. 2019. Using GIS to Show Drought Impacts on North American Agricultural Commodities. Boston, MA: AMS.Online
McNutt, C., Kluck, D., Todey, D., Fuchs, B., Svoboda, M., Black, C. (2017). Floods Punctuated by Drought: Developing an Early Warning System for the Missouri River Basin in the Midst of Alternating Extremes. In D. Wilhite and R. Pulwarty (Ed.), Drought an
Svoboda, M., Fuchs, B. (2017). Handbook of Drought Indicators and Indices. In D. Wilhite and R. Pulwarty (Ed.), Drought and Water Crises: Integrating Science, Management, and Policy (pp. 155-208). Boca Raton, FL: Oxford University Press/CRC Press.Online
Bachmair, S., Stahl, K., Collins, K., Hannaford, J., Acreman, M., Svoboda, M., Knutson, C., Helm-Smith, K., Wall, N., Fuchs, B., Crossman, N. D., Overton, I. C. 2016. Drought Indicators revisited: practice in monitoring and early warning and the link to Online
Knutson, C. and B.Fuchs. 2016. New Tools for Assessing Drought Conditions for Rangeland Management. Rangelands 38(4):177-182Online
Svoboda, M.D., B.A. Fuchs, C.C. Poulsen and J.R. Nothwehr. (2015). The drought risk atlas: Enhancing decision support for drought risk management in the United States. Journal of Hydrology. 526: 274-286Online
Tadesse, T., B.D. Wardlow, J. Brown, M. Hayes, M. Svoboda, B. Fuchs, and D. Gutzmer, 2015. Assessing the vegetation condition impacts of the 2011 drought across the U.S. Southern Great Plains using the Vegetation Drought Response Index (VegDRI), Journal oOnline
Fuchs, B.A., M.D. Svoboda, D.A. Wilhite, and M.J. Hayes. 2014. Drought Indices for Drought Risk Assessment in a Changing Climate (Chapter 43). Handbook of Engineering Hydrology Vol. 2: Modeling Climate Changes and Variability, Saeid Eslamian
Trnka, M., Brázdil, R., Balek, J., Semerádová, D., Hlavinka, P., Možný, M., Štěpánek, P., Dobrovolný, P., Zahradníček, P., Dubrovský, M., Eitzinger, J., Fuchs, B., Svoboda, M., Hayes, M., Žalud, Z. (2014). Drivers of soil drying in the Czech Republic betwOnline
Bathke, D., Bernadt, T., Fuchs, B., Svoboda, M. (in press). A Tutorial for the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Peck, D., Derner, J., Parton, W., Hartman, M., Fuchs, B. (in press). Flexible Stocking with Grass-Cast: A New Grassland Productivity Forecast to Reduce Weather Uncertainty. Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (JARE).

Background

Education

DegreeMajorInstitutionYear Awarded
Master of ScienceGeosciencesUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln2000
Bachelor of ScienceMeteorology/ClimatologyUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln1997

 

Affiliations

 

Professional Organizations

NamePosition
American Association of State Climatologists

 

Websites

 

SNR Program Areas

  • Applied Climate and Spatial Science

Areas of Interest/Expertise

  • Drought
  • Drought Monitoring
  • Drought Early Warning
  • Drought Assessment
  • Applied Climatology
  • Agricultural Drought
  • Climate Assessment
  • Drought Impacts

Grants

Currently this page only displays grants that were awarded on 1/1/ 2009 to the present. If a grant was awarded prior to 1/1/ 2009 and is still active, it will not be displayed on this page.

Grant TitleUSDA Support for Enhancements to the US Drought Monitor 2021-2022
Starting Date10/01/2021

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/30/2022
Funding Level$1,275,000.00
Funding AgencyU.S. Department of Agriculture

 

Grant TitleUSDA Support of the US Drought Monitor and Hub Activities
Starting Date10/01/2020

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/30/2023
Funding Level$2,375,000.00
Funding AgencyUS Deparment of Agriculture - OCE

 

Grant TitleDrought Information Services and Research for Ag across the US
Starting Date09/30/2020

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/29/2021
Funding Level$800,000.00
Funding AgencyUS Deparment of Agriculture - OCE

 

Grant TitleUS Drought Portal Operaions and Development Support
Starting Date09/01/2020

Investigator(s)

Ending Date03/01/2021
Funding Level$150,000.00
Funding AgencyNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

Grant TitleProviding Drought Information Services for the Nation: the National Drought Mitigation Center (Additional Funding)
Starting Date08/01/2020

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/30/2021
Funding Level$808,530.00
Funding AgencyNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

Grant TitleProviding Drought Risk Management Services for the World Bank
Starting Date05/29/2020

Investigator(s)

Ending Date03/24/2021
Funding Level$199,994.00
Funding AgencyWorld Bank Group

 

Grant TitleDrought Information Services for Agriculture across the United States (Additional Funding)
Starting Date09/30/2019

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/29/2020
Funding Level$833,384.00
Funding AgencyUSDA-OCE

 

Grant Title Grass-Cast Website Transfer
Starting Date09/13/2019

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/30/2022
Funding Level$65,000.00
Funding AgencyUSDA/NRCS

 

Grant TitleNIDIS Help Desk Support AWR FY20 (Additional Funding)
Starting Date09/01/2019

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/31/2020
Funding Level$150,000.00
Funding AgencyNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Association

 

Grant TitleProviding Drought Information Services for the Nation: the National Drought Mitigation Center
Starting Date09/01/2019

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/31/2021
Funding Level$791,470.00
Funding AgencyNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Association

 

Grant TitleDrought Risk Management in South Africa
Starting Date06/07/2019

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/15/2020
Funding Level$40,000.00
Funding AgencyWorld Bank Group

 

Grant TitleDrought Information Services for Agriculture across the United States (Additional Funding)
Starting Date10/01/2018

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/30/2019
Funding Level$925,889.00
Funding AgencyUSDA - OCE

 

Grant TitleNOAA High Plains Regional Climate Center (additional funding)
Starting Date09/01/2018

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/31/2019
Funding Level$211,552.00
Funding AgencyDepartment of Commerce

 

Grant TitleConnecting Drought Early Warning to the Decision Making Needs of Specialty Crop Producers in the Midwestern United States
Starting Date09/01/2018

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/31/2019
Funding Level$91,817.00
Funding AgencyNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

Grant Title2016-2017 La Nina Early Warning and Impacts In the Rio Grande Basin (Additional)
Starting Date07/11/2018

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/30/2018
Funding Level$15,000.00
Funding AgencyUSDA - ARS

 

Grant TitleDrought Information Services
Starting Date10/03/2017

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/30/2018
Funding Level$927,774.00
Funding AgencyUSDA - OCE

 

Grant TitleNIDIS Portal Assistance (Additional Funding)
Starting Date09/01/2017

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/31/2018
Funding Level$150,000.00
Funding AgencyNOAA

 

Grant Title Drought Risk Management and Planning Assistance in the Caribbean
Starting Date01/01/2017

Investigator(s)

Ending Date06/30/2017
Funding Level$49,917.00
Funding AgencyCaribbean Institute of Meterology and Hydrology

 

Grant TitleDrought Information Services for Agriculture across the United States (Additional Funding)
Starting Date10/01/2016

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/30/2017
Funding Level$827,501.00
Funding AgencyUSDA - OCE

 

Grant Title2016-2017 La Nina Early Warning and Impacts In the Rio Grande Basin
Starting Date09/01/2016

Investigator(s)

Ending Date05/31/2017
Funding Level$100,000.00
Funding AgencyUSDA - ARS

 

Grant TitleNIDIS Portal Assistance
Starting Date09/01/2016

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/31/2017
Funding Level$150,000.00
Funding AgencyNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

Grant TitleAWR: NIDIS DEWS Assistance
Starting Date09/01/2016

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/31/2017
Funding Level$110,000.00
Funding AgencyNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

Grant TitleDrought Information Services for Agriculture across the United States
Starting Date10/01/2015

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/30/2016
Funding Level$839,442.00
Funding AgencyU. S. Department of Agriculture - Office of the Chief Economist

 

Grant TitleRegional Climate Services Support in the High Plains Region (additional funding)
Starting Date07/31/2015

Investigator(s)

Ending Date07/31/2016
Funding Level$162,572.00
Funding AgencyNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

Grant TitleThe Quick Drought Response Index (QuickDRI): An Integrated Approach to Maximizing the Use of NASA Data Sets for Rapid Response Drought Monitoring (additional funding)
Starting Date06/25/2015

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/13/2016
Funding Level$93,169.00
Funding AgencyNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

 

Grant TitleProviding Drought Information Services for the Nation: the National Drought Mitigation Center
Starting Date06/01/2015

Investigator(s)

Ending Date05/31/2018
Funding Level$798,885.00
Funding AgencyNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

Grant TitleThe Quick Drought Response Index (QuickDRI): An Integrated Approach to Maximizing the Use of NASA Data Sets for Rapid Response Drought Monitoring (additional funding)
Starting Date02/27/2015

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/13/2016
Funding Level$93,169.00
Funding AgencyNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

 

Grant TitleDevelopment of the Middle East and North Africa Network of Water Centers
Starting Date02/01/2015

Investigator(s)

Ending Date12/31/2015
Funding Level$40,052.00
Funding AgencyDeveloment Alternatives, Inc.

 

Grant TitleEastern Caribbean Drought Workshops
Starting Date01/22/2015

Investigator(s)

Ending Date05/20/2016
Funding Level$49,227.00
Funding AgencyOECS

 

Grant TitleImproving US Drought Monitoring - Integrating Soil Moisture Data and Developing a Drought Blends Portal
Starting Date10/01/2014

Investigator(s)

Ending Date10/30/2015
Funding Level$150,000.00
Funding AgencyUS Department of Agriculture

 

Grant TitleDrought Risk Management for the United States
Starting Date09/01/2014

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/31/2015
Funding Level$693,696.00
Funding AgencyUniversity of Oklahoma (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

 

Grant TitleThe Quick Drought Response Index (QuickDRI): An Integrated Approach to Maximizing the Use of NASA Data Sets for Rapid Response Drought Monitoring (additional funding)
Starting Date08/15/2014

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/13/2016
Funding Level$124,225.00
Funding AgencyNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

 

Grant TitleThe Quick Drought Response Index (QuickDRI): An Integrated Approach to Maximizing the Use of NASA Data Sets for Rapid Response Drought Monitoring (additional funding)
Starting Date08/15/2014

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/13/2016
Funding Level$58,113.00
Funding AgencyNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

 

Grant TitleImproving U.S. Drought Monitoring
Starting Date07/16/2014

Investigator(s)

Ending Date07/15/2015
Funding Level$240,000.00
Funding AgencyDepartment of Agriculture

 

Grant TitleTech Assist on Drought Preparedness
Starting Date07/01/2014

Investigator(s)

Ending Date06/30/2015
Funding Level$25,000.00
Funding AgencyWorld Bank Group

 

Grant TitleTech Assist on Drought Preparedness
Starting Date10/03/2013

Investigator(s)

Ending Date06/30/2014
Funding Level$40,000.00
Funding AgencyWorld Bank Group - IBRD

 

Grant TitleNOAA High Plains Regional Climate Center (additional funding)
Starting Date10/01/2013

Investigator(s)

Ending Date03/31/2015
Funding Level$129,050.00
Funding AgencyNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

Grant TitleDrought Information Service
Starting Date10/01/2013

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/30/2014
Funding Level$739,809.00
Funding AgencyUS Department of Commerce - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

Grant TitleNDMC Drought Information Services for Agriculture
Starting Date09/27/2013

Investigator(s)

Ending Date09/26/2014
Funding Level$200,000.00
Funding AgencyDepartment of Agriculture

 

Grant TitleRapid Response Drought Monitoring (additional funding)
Starting Date08/14/2012

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/13/2016
Funding Level$324,564.00
Funding AgencyNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

 

Grant TitleNational Drought Mitigation Center Drought Risk Atlas
Starting Date08/01/2012

Investigator(s)

Ending Date07/31/2014
Funding Level$127,186.00
Funding AgencyNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

 

Grant TitleET Mapping Over North America
Starting Date06/22/2012

Investigator(s)

Ending Date06/21/2013
Funding Level$29,144.00
Funding AgencyUniversity of Maryland

 

Grant TitleIntegrating Enhanced GRACE Water Storage Data (additional funding)
Starting Date08/06/2008

Investigator(s)

Ending Date08/05/2011
Funding Level$77,006.00
Funding AgencyNational Aeronautics and Space Administration