The California Extreme Precipitation Symposium is an informal day of scientific and technical presentations meant to increase our knowledge and understanding of extreme precipitation events. Goals of CEPSYM are to improve flood risk management planning and increase warning time for large floods.

Each year, the Symposium presentations focus on a specific theme, this year's theme is Early Perspectives of 2017 Water Year. Almost every paper or presentation given since starting in 1994 is available under Speaker Presentations.

With the potential impacts of climate change being asked whenever extreme events occur, it seems appropriate to place the 2017 water year into perspective from various points-of-view.  Some questions we plan to cover are:

• What are the historical and future relations between large storms and droughts in California?
•  Where and why did the precipitation fall (rain vs. snow)?
• How did precipitation totals this year compare to historic values and to NOAA Atlas 14 precipitation frequency estimates?
• What was the meteorology of the atmospheric rivers (ARs) impacting watersheds compared to previous flood years?