TY - JOUR
T1 - Observed Hydrologic Impacts of Landfalling Atmospheric Rivers in the Salt and Verde River Basins of Arizona, United States
AU - Demaria, Eleonora M.C.
AU - Dominguez, Francina
AU - Hu, Huancui
AU - von Glinski, Gerd
AU - Robles, Marcos
AU - Skindlov, Jonathan
AU - Walter, James
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was funded by the Department of Interior Southwest Climate Science Center and partially by USDA-ARS. We thank our collaborators City of Peoria, City of Chandler, The White Mountain Apache tribe, The Nature Conservancy, and the Salt River Project for their valuable insights. We thank the comments of three anonymous Reviewers, especially Reviewer 3, that greatly improved the manuscript. SNOTEL data are provided (http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/). Streamflow data were provided by USGS (https://waterdata.usgs.gov) and VIC fields are provided by (https:// www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/ data.livneh.html). MERRA reanalysis are produced by NASA (https://gmao.gsfc. nasa.gov/reanalysis/MERRA/). The list of identified AR events is provided in the supporting information (Table S1).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2017/12
Y1 - 2017/12
N2 - Atmospheric rivers (ARs), narrow atmospheric water vapor corridors, can contribute substantially to winter precipitation in the semiarid Southwest U.S., where natural ecosystems and humans compete for over-allocated water resources. We investigate the hydrologic impacts of 122 ARs that occurred in the Salt and Verde river basins in northeastern Arizona during the cold seasons from 1979 to 2009. We focus on the relationship between precipitation, snow water equivalent (SWE), soil moisture, and extreme flooding. During the cold season (October through March) ARs contribute an average of 25%/29% of total seasonal precipitation for the Salt/Verde river basins, respectively. However, they contribute disproportionately to total heavy precipitation and account for 64%/72% of extreme total daily precipitation (exceeding the 98th percentile). Excess precipitation during AR occurrences contributes to snow accumulation; on the other hand, warmer than normal temperatures during AR landfallings are linked to rain-on-snow processes, an increase in the basins' area contributing to runoff generation, and higher melting lines. Although not all AR events are linked to extreme flooding in the basins, they do account for larger runoff coefficients. On average, ARs generate 43% of the annual maximum flows for the period studied, with 25% of the events exceeding the 10 year return period. Our analysis shows that the devastating 1993 flooding event in the region was caused by AR events. These results illustrate the importance of AR activity on the hydrology of inland semiarid regions: ARs are critical for water resources, but they can also lead to extreme flooding that affects infrastructure and human activities.
AB - Atmospheric rivers (ARs), narrow atmospheric water vapor corridors, can contribute substantially to winter precipitation in the semiarid Southwest U.S., where natural ecosystems and humans compete for over-allocated water resources. We investigate the hydrologic impacts of 122 ARs that occurred in the Salt and Verde river basins in northeastern Arizona during the cold seasons from 1979 to 2009. We focus on the relationship between precipitation, snow water equivalent (SWE), soil moisture, and extreme flooding. During the cold season (October through March) ARs contribute an average of 25%/29% of total seasonal precipitation for the Salt/Verde river basins, respectively. However, they contribute disproportionately to total heavy precipitation and account for 64%/72% of extreme total daily precipitation (exceeding the 98th percentile). Excess precipitation during AR occurrences contributes to snow accumulation; on the other hand, warmer than normal temperatures during AR landfallings are linked to rain-on-snow processes, an increase in the basins' area contributing to runoff generation, and higher melting lines. Although not all AR events are linked to extreme flooding in the basins, they do account for larger runoff coefficients. On average, ARs generate 43% of the annual maximum flows for the period studied, with 25% of the events exceeding the 10 year return period. Our analysis shows that the devastating 1993 flooding event in the region was caused by AR events. These results illustrate the importance of AR activity on the hydrology of inland semiarid regions: ARs are critical for water resources, but they can also lead to extreme flooding that affects infrastructure and human activities.
KW - atmospheric rivers
KW - extremes
KW - flooding
KW - precipitation
KW - semiarid
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U2 - 10.1002/2017WR020778
DO - 10.1002/2017WR020778
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85035244231
SN - 0043-1397
VL - 53
SP - 10025
EP - 10042
JO - Water Resources Research
JF - Water Resources Research
IS - 12
ER -