Study tackles the ensemble spread problem by examining climate change on the Columbia River Basin.
Category: Hydrologic Modeling
Climate Signal Comes Through
Dams or no dams, climate change signal shows up in streamflow records
Spring Snowpack Numbers!
Looking for the latest snowpack numbers for the Pacific Northwest? Look no further.
Runoff from Snow in the West
A new study estimates that over 50% of the runoff in the western US comes from snowmelt, yet snowfall makes up only 37% of total precipitation.
Mountain Snow Declines Past and Future
Two studies examine Pacific Northwest snowpack under climate change.
Putting the Sensitivity Approach into Practice for WW2100
A new research method could help scientists and even resource managers jump computational hurdles. It’s been put to the test in the Willamette Water 2100 project.
A New Approach to Tracking Hydrologic Responses to Climate Change
Rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns are leading to major shifts in when and how streamflows occur. But deciphering how climate change might affect any given watershed can be both time-consuming and expensive. Now a new study focusing on the Pacific Northwest offers a quick, inexpensive alternative to traditional climate downscaling and hydrologic modeling. The…
PUMA Helps Water Utilities Innovate and Adapt
Putting climate science into action at the local level isn’t easy. That’s because when it comes to climate adaptation, climate scientists and resource managers aren’t always on the same page. Putting the results of global climate models to work for local watersheds and reservoirs can also be challenging. These are some of the conclusions from…
Mountain Pine Beetles Affect Rocky Mountain Watersheds
The mountain pine beetle infestation in the Rocky Mountains has impacted millions of acres of pine trees from Colorado to Canada. Evidence suggests that warming temperatures are linked to the insect’s expanding range. Yet exactly what the tree die-off means for local watersheds is still largely unknown. Now, scientist Lindsay Bearup and her fellow researchers are…
A Quick Approach to Modeling Climate Impacts for Water Resource Managers
Water managers could someday have a quicker way to apply climate scenarios to management decisions at the river basin where they’re needed, new research suggests. In a recent paper in the journal Climatic Change, Julie Vano, who is a postdoctoral fellow at OCCRI, and Dennis Lettenmaier, a CIRC principal investigator at UW, describe a technique they…
Julie Vano: Balancing Science and Practice
As a post-doctoral researcher at OCCRI, Julie Vano wants to put the best science on water and climate change in the hands of managers and policy makers, working closely with them to be sure it is usable. The Minnesota native’s career illustrates this mixture of science and outreach. Vano started her professional life with a…
