RENO – In July, the Nevada State Climate Office based in the Department of Geography at the University of Nevada, Reno hired a new state climatologist, Baker Perry.
Perry came to the University from Appalachian State University where he worked for over a decade. Perry’s background is in climatology, and he is also a National Geographic Explorer.
The former interim state climatologist, Tom Albright, is now the deputy state climatologist for the office.
Some of the major draws of Reno for Perry were the mountains and snow of the Sierra Nevada range, the opportunity to work with faculty in the geography department, across campus and at the Desert Research Institute and the opportunity to work with Ph.D. students as a professor of climatology. Of course, the main draw was the position itself.
“I’m super excited to be the state climatologist,” Perry said.
A childhood spent at elevation inspired a life spent in the mountains
Perry’s work on Everest and the Himalaya started with an opportunity that came from his work in the Andes. Growing up, Perry lived in both Bolivia and Peru for several years. Perry recalls going on family hikes that started at 13,000 feet where they lived and rose to 17,000 feet. Living and recreating at high elevations made an impression on Perry and in college he became a skilled mountaineer, enabling him to explore high elevations as he summited peaks in Bolivia.
“I was drawn to the physical challenge and the beauty of these places,” Perry said.
Other parts of Perry’s childhood were spent in New England, which receives impactful winter storms that sparked a curiosity in Perry about weather.
“I had one of those NOAA weather radios and I would sometimes take it to school if there was a storm coming in,” Perry said.
Perry, perhaps predictably, decided to study geography in his master’s and doctoral studies. After completing his Ph.D. Perry combined his passion for mountaineering with his interest in climatology through high-elevation weather research.
To facilitate that research, Perry started working with local communities and government agencies to install high-elevation weather stations. He had completed several projects in the Andes when he was approached by National Geographic about participating in the largest, most comprehensive scientific expedition to Everest.
“I didn’t have to think too long or hard about it,” Perry said.
Perry agreed and became a National Geographic explorer, allowing him more opportunities to study and work in extreme environments, and to work closely with local communities.
“Being able to work with the Sherpa people and all kinds of colleagues across Nepal and international scientists has been a real highlight,” Perry said.
Perry co-led a team to install weather stations on Everest and has continued to serve as the lead on maintaining and operating the stations, which involves annual visits to Everest. One of the main differences between working in the Andes and working in the Himalaya has been the added risk of working above 21,000 feet of elevation, which requires use of oxygen tanks and is termed “the death zone.”
Despite having “perhaps more Everest permits than anybody else,” Perry hasn’t summited the mountain yet. The priorities for scientific missions in such extreme scenarios are safety and science.
“Maybe one of these years, I’ll have a chance where everything will align to make a quick run up to the summit itself,” Perry said.”
Mountains are poorly understood water towers
Perry’s work is centered on high mountain regions and the function they serve as water towers for places downstream. By high mountain regions, he means the highest mountain ranges on earth, including the Himalaya and the Andes, which rise twice as high as the highest peak in the Sierra Nevada.
Fundamentally, though, the research is relevant for the mountain West.
“My work is focused on improving our understanding of the atmospheric processes that are influencing water resource availability downstream,” Perry said.
As Nevada reenters a drought, the issue of water availability returns to the top of Nevadan’s minds. Perry hopes to work closely with communities being affected by climatological phenomena like drought.
“People are just intimately connected to places, and that’s particularly true in mountain regions,” Perry said. “And they are heavily impacted by changes that are taking place.”
Prior to the installation of the highest weather station on the planet on Everest, which Perry co-led, there was only one weather station above 19,000 feet in the world, meaning there was a huge gap in understanding of the processes that take place at high elevations.
As a climatologist who installs weather stations, Perry is used to explaining the difference between weather and climate. By tracking weather data over long periods of time, scientists are able to compare them with datasets from the past, using samples like ice cores, to establish relationships and patterns.
“Our goal is to operate these stations as long as we can,” Perry said. “The longer we can do it, the more we can really talk about the climate and what sort of trends we’re seeing and how the processes are changing, how the climate is changing up in these areas.”
Perry pointed out that while understanding larger climate patterns is important, there are still local, social implications of the research.
“One of the reasons that National Geographic wanted to go to Everest in the first place is that it is an iconic mountain, but it’s also in the Himalaya, and of course the Himalaya are such important water towers for all of Asia.”
Perry recalled hearing from a horseman he works with who grew up directly below the north face of the highest mountain in southern Peru. When the man was younger, the north face of the mountain was white with snow and ice year-round. Now nearing his 80s, the man teared up as he said the black rock of the mountain is visible all the time.
“He can directly relate the loss of water coming off that particular part of the mountain where his family’s animals graze and depend on the water resources,” Perry said.
Meeting Nevada’s needs
Perry added that similar changes are happening in Nevada. He hopes to apply many of his life experiences to his role and use them to interact closely with the community. For example, Perry’s family operates a farm in North Carolina, and while he acknowledges there are differences in how ranching is done in the West, he hopes to use some of that experience to connect with ranchers in the Silver State about important issues like water.
“I have a huge appreciation for agriculture and ranching and the role it plays across the state, the economy, but also the culture,” Perry said.
Perry is also a volunteer firefighter and is working on transferring his credentials to the state so he can support fire suppression efforts, a critical need for the West. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, year-to-date annual acres burned in the US was at 125% above normal for a 10-year average, largely due to significant burning in the northern Great Basin this year.
Perry has also developed rich relationships with the Indigenous communities in Nepal and the Andes and has already begun interacting with the Office of Indigenous Relations on campus to learn more about how the Nevada State Climate Office can better serve Indigenous communities in the state.
According to the American Community Survey, Spanish is spoken in 20% of Nevada households. Perry is fluent in Spanish and plans to translate many of the climate office’s reports into Spanish, allowing Spanish-speaking households better access to climate information for Nevada.
“I’m really excited to develop new relationships,” Perry said. “I’ve got a lot of listening and learning to do across the state.”