Impacts of climate change on snow accumulation and melting processes over mountainous regions in Northern California during the 21st century

Date

2019-10-01

Author

Ishida, K.
Ohara, N.
Ercan, Ali
Jang, S.
Trinh, T.
Kavvas, M. L.
Carr, K.
Anderson, M. L.

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A point-location-based analysis of future climate change impacts on snow accumulation and melting processes was conducted over three study watersheds in Northern California during a 90-year future period by means of snow regime projections. The snow regime projections were obtained by means of a physically-based snow model with dynamically downscaled future climate projections. Then, atmospheric and snow-related variables, and their interrelations during the 21st century were investigated to reveal future climate change impacts on snow accumulation and melting processes. The analysis shows large reductions in snow water equivalent (SWE), snowfall to precipitation (S/P) ratio, and snowmelt through the 21st century. Timing of the peak of the SWE and snowmelt will also change in the future. Meanwhile, the analysis in this study shows that air temperature rise will affect, but will not dominate the future change in snowmelt over the study watersheds. This result implies the importance of considering atmospheric variables other than air temperature, such as precipitation, shortwave radiation, relative humidity, and wind speed even if these variables will not clearly change during the 21st century. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Subject Keywords

Future projections, Snow/precipitation ratio, Snow water equivalent, Air temperature, Snow accumulation and melt, SIERRA-NEVADA, WATER-RESOURCES, SENSITIVITY, ENERGY, MODEL, SIMULATION, SCENARIOS, BALANCE, RUNOFF, COVER

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/100246

Journal

SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.255

Collections

Department of Civil Engineering, Article

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Citation Formats

K. Ishida et al., “Impacts of climate change on snow accumulation and melting processes over mountainous regions in Northern California during the 21st century,” SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT, vol. 685, pp. 104–115, 2019, Accessed: 00, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/100246.