Gridded Snow Water Equivalent Reconstruction for Utah Using Forest Inventory and Analysis Tree-Ring Data

Abstract

Snowpack observations in the Intermountain West are sparse and short, making them difficult for use in depicting past variability and extremes. This study presents a reconstruction of April 1 snow water equivalent (SWE) for the period of 1850-1989 using increment cores collected by the U.S. Forest Service, Interior West Forest Inventory and Analysis program (FIA). In the state of Utah, SWE was reconstructed for 38 snow course locations using a combination of standardized tree-ring indices derived from both FIA increment cores and publicly available tree-ring chronologies. These individual reconstructions were then interpolated to a 4-km grid using an objective analysis with elevation correction to create an SWE product. The results showed a significant correlation with observed SWE as well as good correspondence to regional tree-ring-based drought reconstructions. Diagnostic analysis showed statewide coherent climate variability on inter-annual and inter-decadal time-scales, with added geographical details that would not be possible using courser pre-instrumental proxy datasets. This SWE reconstruction provides water resource managers and forecasters with better spatial resolution to examine past variability in snowpack, which will be important as future hydroclimatic variability is amplified by climate change.

A Practical Statistical Method to Differentiate Inflow and Infiltration in Sanitary Sewer Systems

“…analysis. In the study area, it is assumed that surficial groundwater levels peak at the same time as mountain snowpack, being around April 1 each year (Barandiaran et al 2017). Prior sewer flow data in the study area consistently indicated a spring high and a fall low.…”

The Severity of the 2014–2015 Snow Drought in the Oregon Cascades in a Multicentury Context

“…A recognition of the urgent need for extended snowpack records has resulted in several tree-ring derived reconstructions directly targeting snowpack (Coulthard et al, 2021). These reconstructions exist throughout the western US (Anderson, 2010;Anderson et al, 2012;Barandiaran et al, 2017;Belmecheri et al, 2016;Brice et al, 2021;Harley et al, 2020;Lepley, 2018;Pederson et al, 2011;Timilsena & Piechota, 2008;Thornton, 2018;Touchan et al, 2021;Tunnicliff, 1975;C. A. Woodhouse, 2003).…”

“…A recognition of the urgent need for extended snowpack records has resulted in several tree‐ring derived reconstructions directly targeting snowpack (Coulthard et al., 2021). These reconstructions exist throughout the western US (Anderson, 2010; Anderson et al., 2012; Barandiaran et al., 2017; Belmecheri et al., 2016; Brice et al., 2021; Harley et al., 2020; Lepley, 2018; Pederson et al., 2011; Timilsena & Piechota, 2008; Thornton, 2018; Touchan et al., 2021; Tunnicliff, 1975; C. A. Woodhouse, 2003). In Oregon, tree‐ring derived reconstructions document ongoing hydroclimate shifts in Upper Klamath Basin water year precipitation (Malevich et al., 2013), Columbia River Basin streamflow (Littell et al., 2016), Crater Lake water levels (D. L. Peterson et al., 1999), and Central Oregon soil moisture (Pohl et al., 2002).…”

Snowpack Dynamics Influence Tree Growth and Signals in Tree Rings of Tianshan Mountain, Central Asia

“…Details of these stations are shown in Figure 1 and Table 2. Previous studies have reconstructed the historical snow water equivalent (SWE) series using the April 1 SWE, which was considered as the annual maximum SWE [49,50]. The November-April SWE was also confirmed for SWE reconstruction [51].…”