Associations of interdecadal/interannual climate variability and long-term colorado river basin streamflow

Timilsena, Janak; Piechota, Thomas C.; Tootle, Glenn A.; Singh, Ashok K.

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2008.11.035

Cited by 37 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Similarly, Aziz et al (2010) used singular value decomposition to conclude that ENSO and the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) are not the primary drivers for snowpack variability in the basin. Other studies have found the opposite: Mo et al (2009), Timilsena et al (2009), Hunter et al (2006, and McCabe and Dettinger (2002) all found correlations between the basin's winter variability and ENSO/PDO. Additional studies have found that other oceanic regions, aside from the eastern tropical Pacific (ENSO) and the northern Pacific (PDO), were better correlated with the basin's variability (Nowak et al 2012;Aziz et al 2010;Switanek et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Attribution and Characteristics of Wet and Dry Seasons in the Upper Colorado River Basin

2014

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Previous research has shown that the temperature and precipitation variability in the Upper Colorado River basin (UCRB) is correlated with large-scale climate variability [i.e., El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO)]. But this correlation is not very strong, suggesting the need to look beyond the statistics. Looking at monthly contributions across the basin, results show that February is least sensitive to variability, and a wet October could be a good predictor for a wet season. A case study of a wet and a dry year (with similar ENSO/PDO conditions) shows that the occurrence of a few large accumulating events is what drives the seasonal variability, and these large events can happen under a variety of synoptic conditions. Looking at several physical factors that can impact the amount of accumulation in any given event, it is found that large accumulating events (.10 mm in one day) are associated with westerly winds at all levels, higher wind speeds at all levels, and greater amounts of total precipitable water. The most important difference between a large accumulating and small accumulating event is the presence of a strong (.4 m s 21 ) low-level westerly wind. Because much more emphasis should be given to this more local feature, as opposed to large-scale variability, an accurate seasonal forecast for the basin is not producible at this time.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Attribution and Characteristics of Wet and Dry Seasons in the Upper Colorado River Basin

2014

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“…At decadal time scales, the PDO is often considered the primary driver of hydrologic variability (Brown and Comrie 2004;Hidalgo and Dracup 2003;Dettinger 1999, 2002), despite debate on the independence of the PDO from ENSO (Newman et al 2003). Timilsena et al (2009) noted similar climatic ties to streamflow in the UCRB, finding the warm phase of PDO to be associated with above-average flow. nrcs.usda.gov/snow/about.html) sites across the western United States and various climate indices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colorado River Basin Hydroclimatic Variability

et al. 2012

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An analysis of annual hydroclimatic variability in the Upper Colorado River basin (UCRB) for the period of 1906-2006 was performed to understand the dominant modes of multidecadal variability. First, waveletbased spectral analysis was employed for streamflow at Lees Ferry, Arizona (aggregate location for UCRB flow), which identified two significant modes: a ''low frequency'' (;64-yr period) mode and a strong ''decadal'' (;15-yr period) component active only in recent decades. Subsequent investigation of temperature and precipitation data for the UCRB indicated that the low-frequency variability is associated with temperature via modulation of runoff efficiency while the decadal is strongly tied to moisture delivery. Simple hydrology and climate model experiments are also provided to support the aforementioned findings.Correlation of UCRB precipitation with global sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies showed a strong link with the equatorial and northern Pacific during periods of heightened variability of the decadal mode. The correlation of UCRB temperature with global SST anomalies showed strongest values in the Atlantic consistent with the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation mode. Wavelet spectral analysis of paleo-reconstructed streamflow at Lees Ferry shows both the low-frequency and decadal flow variability features. Furthermore, the strength of the decadal mode is modulated at an ;75-yr time scale, and these are consistent with epochal variations of overall streamflow variance.

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“…For example, the International Panel on Climate Change's assessment reports (Watson et al, 1996;McCarthy et al, 2001;Parry et al, 2007) briefly discussed many studies of climate change effects on river flows. Other examples include studies by George (2007), Lu and Jiang (2009), Rossi et al (2009), Timilsena et al (2009), Liu and Cui (2011), Zhang et al (2011), Bell et al (2012), and Kerstin Verzano et al (2012) to name a few.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting the effects of land use/land cover on mean annual streamflow in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, USA

Tran

O’Neill

2013

Journal of Hydrology

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Associations of interdecadal/interannual climate variability and long-term colorado river basin streamflow

Cited by 37 publications

References 35 publications

Attribution and Characteristics of Wet and Dry Seasons in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Attribution and Characteristics of Wet and Dry Seasons in the Upper Colorado River Basin

Colorado River Basin Hydroclimatic Variability

Detecting the effects of land use/land cover on mean annual streamflow in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, USA

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