Publications document floods of January 1997 in California and Nevada

Hammond, Stephen E.; Harmon, Jerry G.

doi:10.3133/fs09398

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…In particular, the highest average monthly precipitation values of more than 250 mm/month were found in the Pacific Northwest due to enhanced orographic precipitation [ Lavers and Villarini , ]. Some of the largest regional flood events along the west coast of the United States have been caused by warm, high‐elevation rain and rain‐on‐snow events producing the November 2006 floods in Washington [ Neiman et al ., ], the February 1996 floods in Oregon [ Copper , ], and the 1997 New Year's Flood in central and northern California [ Hammond and Harmon , ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mixed populations and annual flood frequency estimates in the western United States: The role of atmospheric rivers

Barth

Villarini

Nayak

et al. 2017

Water Resources Research

102

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The Bulletin 17B framework assumes that the annual peak flow data included in a flood frequency analysis are from a homogeneous population. However, flood frequency analysis over the western United States is complicated by annual peak flow records that frequently contain annual flows generated from distinctly different flood generating mechanisms. These flood series contain multiple zero flows and/or potentially influential low floods (PILFs) that substantially deviate from the overall pattern in the data. Moreover, they often also contain extreme flood events representing different hydrometeorologic agents. Among the different flood generating mechanisms, atmospheric rivers (ARs) are responsible for large, regional‐scale floods. The spatial and fractional contribution of ARs in annual peak flow data is examined based on 1375 long‐term U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) streamgage sites with at least 30 years of data. Six main areas in which flooding is impacted by ARs at varying degrees were found throughout the western United States. The Pacific Northwest and the northern California coast have the highest fraction of AR‐generated peaks (∼80–100%), while eastern Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico have nearly no impacts from ARs. The individual regions of the central Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest, the Sierra Nevada, the central and southern California coast, and central Arizona all show a mixture of 30–70% AR‐generated flood peaks. Analyses related to the largest flood peaks on record and to the estimated annual exceedance probabilities highlight the strong impact of ARs on flood hydrology in this region, together with marked regional differences.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mixed populations and annual flood frequency estimates in the western United States: The role of atmospheric rivers

Barth

Villarini

Nayak

et al. 2017

Water Resources Research

102

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“…For example, the two least damaging category 5 storms (11 November 1983 at 42.5°N and 29 November 2007 at 27.5°N) affected sparsely populated areas early in the wet season when soils were still dry and able to absorb most of the extreme precipitation, causing less than $10 million in damages. In contrast, the most damaging category 1 storm occurred 2 weeks after the devastating 1996-1997 New Year's flood in northern California and western Nevada when soils and snowpack were primed for high runoff and river stages were already at high levels (23), causing over $200 million in damages.…”

Section: And Table 2)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric rivers drive flood damages in the western United States

et al. 2019

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Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are extratropical storms that produce extreme precipitation on the west coasts of the world’s major landmasses. In the United States, ARs cause significant flooding, yet their economic impacts have not been quantified. Here, using 40 years of data from the National Flood Insurance Program, we show that ARs are the primary drivers of flood damages in the western United States. Using a recently developed AR scale, which varies from category 1 to 5, we find that flood damages increase exponentially with AR intensity and duration: Each increase in category corresponds to a roughly 10-fold increase in damages. Category 4 and 5 ARs cause median damages in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars, respectively. Rising population, increased development, and climate change are expected to worsen the risk of AR-driven flood damage in future decades.

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“…ARs play a central role in the extratropical moisture transport, leading to heavy precipitation and flooding events in western and central North America (4,8). In fact, ARs are responsible for almost all of the annual maximum flood peaks along large areas of the US West Coast (6), including the January 1997 flood event that caused nearly two billion dollars in damage in California (9) and more than 550 million dollars in Nevada (10); they are also associated with strong winds causing multibillion dollar losses in Europe (7). Because of their large impacts, there has been a rising interest in various aspects related to these events, ranging from their climate variability to their changes under a warming climate (2,11) to the assessment of the atmospheric model performance in simulating ARs (12,13).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncovering the role of the East Asian jet stream and heterogeneities in atmospheric rivers affecting the western United States

Zhang

Villarini

2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Atmospheric rivers (ARs) exert major socioeconomic repercussions along the US West Coast by inducing heavy rainfall, flooding, strong winds, and storm surge. Despite the significant societal and economic repercussions of these storms, our understanding of the physical drivers responsible for their interannual variability is limited, with different climate modes identified as possible mechanisms. Here we show that the Pacific-Japan (PJ) teleconnections/patterns and the East Asian subtropical jet (EASJ) exhibit a strong linkage with the total frequency of ARs making landfall over the western United States, much stronger than the other potential climate modes previously considered. While our findings indicate that the PJ pattern and EASJ are the most relevant climate modes driving the overall AR activity, we also uncover heterogeneities in AR tracks. Specifically, we show that not all ARs making landfall along the West Coast come from a single population, but rather that it is possible to stratify these storms into three clusters. While the PJ pattern and EASJ are major drivers of AR activity for two clusters, the cluster that primarily affects the US Southwest is largely driven by other climate modes [El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Atlantic meridional mode (AMM), the Pacific-North America (PNA) teleconnection pattern, and the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO)]. Therefore, important regional differences exist and this information can substantially enhance our ability to predict and prepare for these storms and their impacts.

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Publications document floods of January 1997 in California and Nevada

Cited by 7 publications

References 1 publication

Mixed populations and annual flood frequency estimates in the western United States: The role of atmospheric rivers

Mixed populations and annual flood frequency estimates in the western United States: The role of atmospheric rivers

Atmospheric rivers drive flood damages in the western United States

Uncovering the role of the East Asian jet stream and heterogeneities in atmospheric rivers affecting the western United States

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