Appendix
References
REFERENCES AAFC / Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, “A Guide to AgriRecovery,” https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/programs/ agrirecovery/guide AAFC / Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, “AgriRecovery Initiative to Support Farms Affected by Drought,” June 18, 2026, https://www.canada.ca/en/agriculture-agri-food/news/2026/06/agrirecovery-initiative-to-support-farms-affected-by- drought.html Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, “ACOA Ministerial Briefing 2025,” https://www.canada.ca/en/atlantic-canada- opportunities/corporate/transparency/transition-materials/ministerial-transition-2025/acoa-ministerial-briefing.html AP via ABC News, “It’s Been an Intense Hurricane Season in the Pacific and There’s a Long Way to Go,” September 24, 2026, https://abcnews.com/US/wireStory/intense-hurricane-season-pacific-long-136738234 BC Business, “Business Climate: Can the Okanagan Wine Industry Survive Climate Change?,” https://bcbusiness.ca/ industries/environment/business-climate-can-the-okanagan-wine-industry-survive-climate-change/ BC Government News, “Federal-Provincial Support Helping Disaster-Affected Farmers,” https://news.gov.bc.ca/ releases/2023AF0056-001624
Napa, CA
Bestsnow.net, “Ski Areas Favored by El Niño,” https://bestsnow.net/La_Nina.htm
CBC News, “Ontario Apple Farmers Hope Weird Winter Weather Won’t Damage 2016 Crop,” https://amp.cbc.ca/news/ canada/ottawa/apple-farmers-weather-ontario-winter-1.3382267 CBC News, “Ontario Sees Dramatic Drop in Icewine Production Over Last 5 Years,” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ hamilton/niagara-icewine-2023-production-cold-fronts-1.6741339 CBC News, “Shortage of Snow Amid Drought and El Niño Causing Concern at B.C. Interior Ski Hills,” November 29, 2023, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/el-nino-drought-bc-interior-ski-hills-1.7043016 Changnon, Stanley A., “Impacts of 1997-98 El Niño-Generated Weather in the United States,” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 80, no. 9 (1999), https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/80/9/1520- 0477_1999_080_1819_ioenog_2_0_co_2.xml Columbia Climate School, “A Climate Expert Explains Why Atmospheric Rivers Are Causing Historic Rainfall in California,” February 2024, https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2024/02/05/a-climate-expert-explains-why-atmospheric-rivers-are- causing-historic-rainfall-in-california/
Regional Planning Priorities Across regions, four practices recur: combine crop and visitor forecasts; prepare alternative-product and down-vintage campaigns in advance; distinguish ENSO evidence from broader climate trends; and coordinate with extension services, agriculture departments and tourism partners. These steps improve both visitor communication and the documentation needed if losses later trigger assistance programs. The monitoring calendar should follow the product rather than the ENSO headline. Winter chill and snowpack matter before bloom; spring temperature swings affect fruit set; summer drought, wildfire smoke and marine heat affect access and visitor experience; and autumn conditions determine harvest festivals and foliage timing. A single annual El Niño briefing is therefore insufficient for diversified destinations. Assign owners and update dates to each indicator, and connect every threshold to a specific marketing, operations or member-communication action. Review the calendar with operators before each exposure window so that new local observations can change the plan before visitor expectations and campaign spending are fixed.
Coastal California Wine tourism adds a crop-and-access dimension to California’s flood exposure. During the 1997–98 El Niño, an abnormally wet spring contributed to poor fruit set in Napa while statewide storms and flooding disrupted roads, trails and visitor movement. Smaller yields later produced concentrated, well-reviewed wines at some wineries, showing that the loss mechanism may be volume and access rather than a complete collapse in product quality. Destination organizations can prepare a scarcity-and-quality narrative, but it should accompany honest reporting on closures and reduced supply. Pacific Northwest and Western Canada Warm, dry El Niño winters that weaken snowpack can also reduce winter chill or increase bloom-time frost exposure for orchard and wine regions. Washington and Oregon orchards are particularly sensitive to dormancy and bloom timing. In British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, a December 2022 cold outbreak destroyed an estimated 54 percent of the grape crop, followed by drought and wildfire that cut short the visitor season and a January 2024 freeze that producers described as an almost complete write-off of the 2024 vintage. Roughly one-quarter of Okanagan wineries were reported for sale by early 2024. The sequence demonstrates compounding multi-year exposure rather than a clean single-event attribution: agricultural production, tasting-room demand and the regional winter-sports product weakened during the same broader period. Monitoring must therefore continue across seasons rather than end with the winter forecast.
Congress.gov / CRS, “Federal Disaster Assistance for Agriculture,” https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF10565
CPR News, “Vails Pass Sales Dip Under Memories of No Snow Last Year,” September 28, 2026, https://www.cpr.org/2026/09/28/vail-pass-sales-down-no-snow/
Data Appeal, “Crisis Management: How to Build Destination Resilience,” https://datappeal.io/rethinking-destination- strategy-in-uncertain-times-building-resilience-with-tourism-intelligence/ Destinations International, “5 Things U.S. DMO Leaders Should Do Today,” https://destinationsinternational.org/blog/5- things-us-dmo-leaders-should-do-today Destinations International, “We’ve Been Here Before: What DMOs Learned from the Pandemic to Succeed Today,” https:// destinationsinternational.org/blog/weve-been-here-what-dmos-learned-pandemic-succeed-today Farmtario, “Ontario Agritourism Study Highlights $633M Economic Impact,” https://farmtario.com/news/ontario- agritourism-study-highlights-633m-economic-impact/
Finger Lakes Wine Alliance, “Vintage Reports,” https://fingerlakeswinealliance.com/trade/vintage-reports/
Florida Department of Environmental Protection, “RESTORE,” https://floridadep.gov/wra/deepwater-horizon/content/ restore
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