Abstract

As global temperatures rise, snow resources over North America are predicted to change in significant ways. Long-term changes in the timing of the snow season and amount of snow will negatively impact natural ecosystems and the human use of snow resources for water storage, hydroelectric power pr... Show moreAs global temperatures rise, snow resources over North America are predicted to change in significant ways. Long-term changes in the timing of the snow season and amount of snow will negatively impact natural ecosystems and the human use of snow resources for water storage, hydroelectric power production, irrigation and recreation. The North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP, Mearns et al. 2013) suite of climate models are intended for use in climate process studies as well as climate change impacts and adaptation studies. To assess the credibility of future changes in water resources as predicted by NARCCAP, the ability of the models to simulate the amount, extent, and timing of snow must first be evaluated. This study evaluates snow water equivalent (SWE) in the the NARCCAP regional models. We focus on the six regional climate models (RCMs) driven by NCEP-DOE Reanalysis 2 data to estimate biases associated with model configuration and physics. These simulations allow us to see how the models represent the observed climate from 1979-2003. In subsequent studies, the GCM driven NARCCAP simulations will be evaluated. Show less