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Streamflow often increases after fire, but the persistence of this effect and its importance to present and future regional water resources are unclear. This paper addresses these knowledge gaps for the western United States (WUS), where annual forest fire area increased by more than 1,100% during 1984 to 2020. Among 72 forested basins across the WUS that burned between 1984 and 2019, the multibasin mean streamflow was significantly elevated by 0.19 SDs (P < 0.01) for an average of 6 water years postfire, compared to the range of results expected from climate alone. Significance is assessed by comparing prefire and postfire streamflow responses to climate and also to streamflow among 107 control basins that experienced little to no wildfire during the study period. The streamflow response scales with fire extent: among the 29 basins where >20% of forest area burned in a year, streamflow over the first 6 water years postfire increased by a multibasin average of 0.38 SDs, or 30%. Postfire streamflow increases were significant in all four seasons. Historical fire-climate relationships combined with climate model projections suggest that 2021 to 2050 will see repeated years when climate is more fire-conducive than in 2020, the year currently holding the modern record for WUS forest area burned. These findings center on relatively small, minimally managed basins, but our results suggest that burned areas will grow enough over the next 3 decades to enhance streamflow at regional scales. Wildfire is an emerging driver of runoff change that will increasingly alter climate impacts on water supplies and runoff-related risks.

Abstract: Extreme daily precipitation contributes to flooding that can cause significant economic damages, and so is important to properly capture in gridded meteorological data sets. This work examines precipitation extremes, the mean precipitation on wet days, and fraction of wet days in two widely used gridded data sets over the conterminous U.S. (CONUS). Compared to the underlying station observations, the gridded data show a 27% reduction in annual 1-day maximum precipitation, 25% increase in wet day fraction, 1.5 to 2.5 day increase in mean wet spell length, 30% low bias in 20-year return values of daily precipitation, and 25% decrease in mean precipitation on wet days. It is shown these changes arise primarily from the time-adjustment applied to put the precipitation gauge observations into a uniform time frame, with the gridding process playing a lesser role. A new daily precipitation data set is developed that omits the time-adjustment (as well as extending the gridded data by 7 years) and is shown to perform significantly better in reproducing extreme precipitation metrics. When the new data set is used to force a land surface model, annually averaged 1-day maximum runoff increases 38% compared to the original data, annual mean runoff increases 17%, evapotranspiration drops 2.3%, and fewer wet days leads to a 3.3% increase in estimated solar insolation. These changes are large enough to affect portrayals of flood risk and water balance components important for ecological and climate-change applications across the CONUS.

Abstract: This study compares projected changes of precipitation characteristics in the U.S. Northeast in two analog-based climate downscaling products, Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analogs (MACA) and Localized Constructed Analogs (LOCA). The level of similarity or differences between the two products varies with the type of precipitation metrics. For the total precipitation amount, the two products project significant annual increases that are similar in magnitude, spatial pattern, and seasonal distribution, with the largest increases in winter and spring. For the overall precipitation intensity or temporal aggregation of heavy precipitation (e.g., number of days with more than one inch of precipitation, the simple intensity index, and the fraction of annual precipitation accounted for by heavy events), both products project significant increases across the region with strong model consensus; the magnitude of absolute increases are similar between the two products, but the relative increases are larger in LOCA due to an underestimation of heavy precipitation in LOCA’s training data. For precipitation extremes such as the annual maximum 1-day precipitation, both products project significant increases in the long-term mean, but the magnitude of both the absolute and relative changes are much smaller in LOCA than in MACA, indicating that the extreme precipitation differences in the training data are amplified in future projections as a result of the analog-based downscaling algorithms. The two products differ the most in the intensity and frequency of rare extremes (e.g., 1-in-20-years events) for which MACA projects significant increases while the LOCA-projected changes are inconclusive over much of the study area.

Severe and persistent 21st-century drought in southwestern North America (SWNA) motivates comparisons to medieval megadroughts and questions about the role of anthropogenic climate change. We use hydrological modeling and new 1200-year tree-ring reconstructions of summer soil moisture to demonstrate that the 2000-2018 SWNA drought was the second driest 19-year period since 800 CE, exceeded only by a late-1500s megadrought. The megadrought-like trajectory of 2000-2018 soil moisture was driven by natural variability superimposed on drying due to anthropogenic warming. Anthropogenic trends in temperature, relative humidity, and precipitation estimated from 31 climate models account for 47% (model interquartiles of 35 to 105%) of the 2000-2018 drought severity, pushing an otherwise moderate drought onto a trajectory comparable to the worst SWNA megadroughts since 800 CE.

As the climate warms, snow‐dominated regions are increasingly susceptible to precipitation phase changes and earlier snowmelt. In alpine catchments, snowmelt is the majority of runoff, governed by heterogeneous interactions among snowfall, wind, topography and vegetation. The role of the alpine snowpack in delaying the downstream release of accumulated snowfall remains understudied, despite its fundamental role in sustaining lower‐elevation ecosystems and populations. We evaluated fine‐scale changes in the magnitude and duration of alpine snow water storage and release by comparing effective precipitation seasonality to that of surface water inputs using a Snow Storage Index (SSI). We forced the Distributed Hydrology Soil Vegetation Model with historical climate conditions and an end‐of‐century warming signal down‐scaled from a 4‐km regional climate model, to simulate future changes in snow water storage and partitioning of precipitation to runoff and evapotranspiration. The hydrological modelling was conducted on a 2‐m spatial grid to resolve fine scale processes over a 0.6‐km2 headwater catchment within the Niwot Ridge Long‐Term Ecological Research site located in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, USA. Proportionally more rainfall, reduced snowpack size and extent, and earlier snowmelt occurred in the future scenario with decreased catchment average SSI and thus snow water storing capabilities, with inordinately large decreases occurring in areas of the catchment with reconstructed snowdrifts (−57% average and −100% maximum). Using the Budyko framework to evaluate annual hydrologic partitioning, precipitation inputs to streamflow increased by a maximum 10% in large SSI regions with snowdrifts under warming conditions, signifying a potential buffer for total catchment and annual streamflow loss in a future climate. The fine‐scale analysis of hydrologic sensitivities to warming presented herein are important because climate conditions are expected to further reduce alpine snow water storage, alter hydrologic partitioning, and runoff generation for ecosystems and people living downstream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme precipitation events are projected to increase in frequency across much of the land‐surface as the global climate warms, but such projections have typically relied on coarse‐resolution (100–250 km) general circulation models (GCMs). The ensemble of HighResMIP GCMs presents an opportunity to evaluate how a more finely resolved atmosphere and land‐surface might enhance the fidelity of the simulated contribution of large‐magnitude storms to total precipitation, particularly across topographically complex terrain. Here, the simulation of large‐storm dominance, that is, the number of wettest days to reach half of the total annual precipitation, is quantified across the western United States (WUS) using four GCMs within the HighResMIP ensemble and their coarse resolution counterparts. Historical GCM simulations (1950–2014) are evaluated against a baseline generated from station‐observed daily precipitation (4,803 GHCN‐D stations) and from three gridded, observationally based precipitation data sets that are coarsened to match the resolution of the GCMs. All coarse‐resolution simulations produce less large‐storm dominance than in observations across the WUS. For two of the four GCMs, bias in the median large‐storm dominance is reduced in the HighResMIP simulation, decreasing by as much as 62% in the intermountain west region. However, the other GCMs show little change or even an increase (+28%) in bias of median large‐storm dominance across multiple sub‐regions. The spread in differences with resolution amongst GCMs suggests that, in addition to resolution, model structure and parameterization of precipitation generating processes also contribute to bias in simulated large‐storm dominance. Plain Language Summary: As global temperatures rise, there's growing concern about an increase in the frequency of extreme precipitation events. However, projections of future changes to large‐magnitude precipitation events often rely on coarse‐resolution models which simulate meteorology on a spatial scale larger than most storms. To address this, we explored the potential of higher resolution models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project HighResMIP ensemble to improve the fidelity of simulated precipitation variability across the western United States. We compared four HighResMIP models with their coarse‐resolution counterparts from 1950 to 2014 and found that coarse‐resolution models consistently underestimated the dominance of large storms compared to observed data. While some HighResMIP models showed improvement, others remained unchanged or even showed increased bias. This suggests that besides spatial resolution alone, factors like model structure and numerical representation of fine scale precipitation processes play a role in accurately simulating intense storms. These findings highlight the importance of considering both resolution and climate model structure in predicting future extreme precipitation events, especially in regions where precipitation is generated by processes that operate on a wide range of spatial scales. Key Points: Increasing spatial resolution of general circulation models (GCMs) does not consistently improve simulation of large‐storm dominance across the western United StatesCoarse resolution GCMs simulate large‐storm dominance well in regions where the largest daily precipitation events are due to synoptic scale precipitationModel structure and parameterization of precipitation generation appear to be equally as important as resolution in the simulation of large‐storm dominance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gridded spatiotemporal maps of precipitation are essential for hydrometeorological and ecological analyses. In the United States, most of these datasets are developed using the Cooperative Observer (COOP) network of ground-based precipitation measurements, interpolation, and the Parameter-Elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) to map these measurements to places where data are not available. Here, we evaluate two daily datasets gridded at 1/16° resolution against independent daily observations from over 100 snow pillows in California's Sierra Nevada from 1990 to 2010. Over the entire period, the gridded datasets performed reasonably well, with median total water-year errors generally falling within ±10%. However, errors in individual storm events sometimes exceeded 50% for the median difference across all stations, and in many cases, the same underpredicted storms appear in both datasets. Synoptic analysis reveals that these underpredicted storms coincide with 700-hPa winds from the west or northwest, which are associated with post-cold-frontal flow and disproportionately small precipitation rates in low-elevation valley locations, where the COOP stations are primarily located. This atmospheric circulation leads to a stronger than normal valley-to-mountain precipitation gradient and underestimation of actual mountain precipitation. Because of the small average number of storms (

Lakes provide important water resources and many essential ecosystem services. Some of Earth's largest lakes recently reached record‐low levels, suggesting increasing threats from climate change and anthropogenic activities. Yet, continuous monitoring of lake levels is challenging at a global scale due to the sparse in situ gauging network and the limited spatial or temporal coverage of satellite altimeters. A few pioneering studies used water areas and hypsometric curves to reconstruct water levels but suffered from large uncertainties due to the lack of high‐quality hypsometry data. Here, we propose a novel proxy‐based method to reconstruct multi‐decadal water levels from 1992 to 2018 for both large and small lakes using Landsat images and ICESat (2003–2009) and recently launched ICESat‐2 (2018+) laser altimeters. Using the new method, we evaluate reconstructed levels of 342 lakes worldwide, with sizes ranging from 1 to 81,844 km2. Reconstructed water levels have a median root‐mean‐square error (RMSE) of 0.66 m, equivalent to 57% of the standard deviation of monthly level variability. Compared with two recently reconstructed water level data sets, the proposed method reduces the median RMSE by 27%–32%. The improvement is attributable to the new method's robust construction of high‐quality hypsometry, with a median R2 value of 0.92. Most reconstructed water level time series have a bi‐monthly or higher frequency. Given that ICESat‐2 and Landsat can observe hundreds of thousands of water bodies, this method can be applied to conduct an improved global inventory of time‐varying lake levels and thus inform water resource management more broadly than existing methods. Key Points: Landsat images and laser altimeters were leveraged to reconstruct multi‐decadal lake levels of both large and small lakesReconstructed water levels were validated against observed levels on 342 global lakes with a median error of 0.66 mMost of the reconstructed lake level time series have a bi‐monthly or higher frequency [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thresholds can be used to interpret environmental data in a way that is easily communicated and useful for decision-making purposes. However, thresholds are often developed for specific data products and time periods, changing findings when the same threshold is applied to datasets or periods with different characteristics. Here, we test the impact of different spatial discretizations of snow on annual estimates of wolverine denning opportunities in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, defined using a snow water equivalent (SWE) threshold (0.20 m) and threshold date (15 May) from previous habitat assessments. Annual potential wolverine denning area (PWDA) was thresholded from a 36-year (1985–2020) snow reanalysis model with three different spatial discretizations: (1) 480 m grid cells (D480), (2) 90 m grid cells (D90), and (3) 480 m grid cells with implicit representations of subgrid snow spatial heterogeneity (S480). Relative to the D480 and S480 discretizations, D90 resolved shallower snow deposits on slopes between 3050 and 3350 m elevation, decreasing PWDA by 10 %, on average. In years with warmer and/or drier winters, S480 discretizations with subgrid representations of snow heterogeneity increased PWDA, even within grid cells where mean 15 May SWE was less than the SWE threshold. These simulations increased PWDA by upwards of 30 % in low-snow years, as compared to the D480 and D90 simulations without subgrid snow heterogeneity. Despite PWDA sensitivity to different snow spatial discretizations, PWDA was controlled more by annual variations in winter precipitation and temperature. However, small changes to the SWE threshold (±0.07 m) and threshold date (±2 weeks) also affected PWDA by as much as 82 %. Across these threshold ranges, PWDA was approximately 18 % more sensitive to the SWE threshold than the threshold date. However, the sensitivity to the threshold date was larger in years with late spring snowfall, when PWDA depended on whether modeled SWE was thresholded before, during, or after spring snow accumulation. Our results demonstrate that snow thresholds are useful but may not always provide a complete picture of the annual variability in snow-adapted wildlife denning opportunities. Studies thresholding spatiotemporal datasets could be improved by including (1) information about the fidelity of thresholds across multiple spatial discretizations and (2) uncertainties related to ranges of realistic thresholds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]