After 14 years as Arizona’s top analyst of weather data, State Climatologist Nancy Selover has announced her retirement. Effectively if not literally, she has weathered the stormy challenges of being the top weather-and-climate expert in a state that has been dogged by persistent drought throughout her time in office.

A research professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University, Selover also will retire from her ASU duties, which involve research into urban heat-island effects, microclimate and evaporation.

Her role as State Climatologist, however, is the one that has put her most prominently in the public eye. Appointed in 2007 by then-Governor Janet Napolitano, Dr. Selover has spent countless hours in public forums providing climate data and information about Arizona weather issues to the general public, government agencies, private industry and other researchers.

She has said that her greatest pleasure in the job has been her presentations to schools and community groups, discussing climate and weather topics that impact Arizona and, in her words, “communicating climate science to stakeholders in plain vanilla.”

On Tuesday, May 11 at 10 a.m., Dr. Selover will participate in her final meeting with the Drought Interagency Coordinating Group. At that meeting, the ICG will be asked to make a recommendation to Governor Doug Ducey about whether to maintain the official Drought Declarations that are currently in place.

Information about the May 11 ICG meeting may be found on the Arizona Department of Water Resources website at new.azwater.gov/drought

The following is a recording of a farewell discussion between ADWR’s Arizona Water News and Dr. Selover.