The Water‐Year Water Balance of the Colorado River Basin
Abstract
Abstract Model‐estimated monthly water balance components (i.e., potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, and runoff ( R )) for 146 United States (U.S.) Geological Survey 8‐digit hydrologic units located in the Colorado River Basin (CRB) are used to examine the temporal and spatial variability of the CRB water balance for water years 1901 through 2014 (a water year is the period from October 1 of one year through September 30 of the following year). Results indicate that the CRB can be divided into six subregions with similar temporal variability in monthly R . The water balance analyses indicated that approximately 75% of total water‐year R is generated by just one CRB subregion and that most of the R in the basin is derived from surplus ( S ) water generated during the months of October through April. Furthermore, the analyses show that temporal variability in S is largely controlled by the occurrence of negative atmospheric pressure anomalies over the northwestern conterminous U.S. (CONUS) and positive atmospheric pressure anomalies over the southeastern CONUS. This combination of atmospheric pressure anomalies results in an anomalous flow of moist air from the North Pacific Ocean into the CRB, particularly the Upper CRB. Additionally, the occurrence ofmore »
- Authors:
-
- U.S. Geological Survey Denver Colorado USA
- U.S. Geological Survey Lawrence Kansas USA
- Publication Date:
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1630254
- Resource Type:
- Publisher's Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of the American Water Resources Association
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Journal of the American Water Resources Association Journal Volume: 56 Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 1093-474X
- Publisher:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Citation Formats
McCabe, Gregory J., and Wolock, David M. The Water‐Year Water Balance of the Colorado River Basin. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1111/1752-1688.12848.
McCabe, Gregory J., & Wolock, David M. The Water‐Year Water Balance of the Colorado River Basin. United States. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12848
McCabe, Gregory J., and Wolock, David M. Wed .
"The Water‐Year Water Balance of the Colorado River Basin". United States. https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12848.
@article{osti_1630254,
title = {The Water‐Year Water Balance of the Colorado River Basin},
author = {McCabe, Gregory J. and Wolock, David M.},
abstractNote = {Abstract Model‐estimated monthly water balance components (i.e., potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, and runoff ( R )) for 146 United States (U.S.) Geological Survey 8‐digit hydrologic units located in the Colorado River Basin (CRB) are used to examine the temporal and spatial variability of the CRB water balance for water years 1901 through 2014 (a water year is the period from October 1 of one year through September 30 of the following year). Results indicate that the CRB can be divided into six subregions with similar temporal variability in monthly R . The water balance analyses indicated that approximately 75% of total water‐year R is generated by just one CRB subregion and that most of the R in the basin is derived from surplus ( S ) water generated during the months of October through April. Furthermore, the analyses show that temporal variability in S is largely controlled by the occurrence of negative atmospheric pressure anomalies over the northwestern conterminous U.S. (CONUS) and positive atmospheric pressure anomalies over the southeastern CONUS. This combination of atmospheric pressure anomalies results in an anomalous flow of moist air from the North Pacific Ocean into the CRB, particularly the Upper CRB. Additionally, the occurrence of extreme dry and wet periods in the CRB appears to be related to variability of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.},
doi = {10.1111/1752-1688.12848},
journal = {Journal of the American Water Resources Association},
number = 4,
volume = 56,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Wed May 20 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12848
Web of Science
Works referenced in this record:
Climate-change impacts on water resources and hydropower potential in the Upper Colorado River Basin
journal, March 2015
- Kopytkovskiy, M.; Geza, M.; McCray, J. E.
- Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies, Vol. 3
Atlantic Ocean Forcing of North American and European Summer Climate
journal, July 2005
- Sutton, R. T.
- Science, Vol. 309, Issue 5731
Water balance modeling over variable time scales based on the Budyko framework – Model development and testing
journal, October 2008
- Zhang, Lu; Potter, Nick; Hickel, Klaus
- Journal of Hydrology, Vol. 360, Issue 1-4
Understanding Uncertainties in Future Colorado River Streamflow
journal, January 2014
- Vano, Julie A.; Udall, Bradley; Cayan, Daniel R.
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 95, Issue 1
A Pacific Interdecadal Climate Oscillation with Impacts on Salmon Production
journal, June 1997
- Mantua, Nathan J.; Hare, Steven R.; Zhang, Yuan
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 78, Issue 6
Evidence that Recent Warming is Reducing Upper Colorado River Flows
journal, December 2017
- McCabe, Gregory J.; Wolock, David M.; Pederson, Gregory T.
- Earth Interactions, Vol. 21, Issue 10
Hydroclimatology of the US Intermountain West
journal, May 2012
- Wise, Erika K.
- Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment, Vol. 36, Issue 4
Warming may create substantial water supply shortages in the Colorado River basin
journal, January 2007
- McCabe, Gregory J.; Wolock, David M.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 34, Issue 22
Joint Variability of Global Runoff and Global Sea Surface Temperatures
journal, August 2008
- McCabe, Gregory J.; Wolock, David M.
- Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol. 9, Issue 4
Energy budget increases reduce mean streamflow more than snow–rain transitions: using integrated modeling to isolate climate change impacts on Rocky Mountain hydrology
journal, April 2016
- M. Foster, Lauren; A. Bearup, Lindsay; P. Molotch, Noah
- Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 11, Issue 4
The Effects of Climate Change on the Hydrology and Water Resources of the Colorado River Basin
journal, January 2004
- Christensen, Niklas S.; Wood, Andrew W.; Voisin, Nathalie
- Climatic Change, Vol. 62, Issue 1-3
Pacific and Atlantic Ocean influences on multidecadal drought frequency in the United States
journal, March 2004
- McCabe, G. J.; Palecki, M. A.; Betancourt, J. L.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 101, Issue 12
The twenty-first century Colorado River hot drought and implications for the future: COLORADO RIVER FLOW LOSS
journal, March 2017
- Udall, Bradley; Overpeck, Jonathan
- Water Resources Research, Vol. 53, Issue 3
Hydroclimatology of the Missouri River Basin
journal, January 2018
- Wise, Erika K.; Woodhouse, Connie A.; McCabe, Gregory J.
- Journal of Hydrometeorology, Vol. 19, Issue 1
Precipitation Trends and Water Consumption Related to Population in the Southwestern United States: A Reassessment
journal, March 1995
- Diaz, Henry F.; Anderson, Craig A.
- Water Resources Research, Vol. 31, Issue 3
The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and its relation to rainfall and river flows in the continental U.S.
journal, May 2001
- Enfield, David B.; Mestas-Nuñez, Alberto M.; Trimble, Paul J.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 28, Issue 10
Associations of Decadal to Multidecadal Sea-Surface Temperature Variability with Upper Colorado River Flow1: Associations of Decadal to Multidecadal Sea-Surface Temperature Variability With Upper Colorado River Flow
journal, February 2007
- McCabe, Gregory J.; Betancourt, Julio L.; Hidalgo, Hugo G.
- JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, Vol. 43, Issue 1
Hydroclimatic regimes: a distributed water-balance framework for hydrologic assessment, classification, and management
journal, January 2014
- Weiskel, P. K.; Wolock, D. M.; Zarriello, P. J.
- Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol. 18, Issue 10
Hydroclimatology of the Mississippi River Basin
journal, December 2018
- McCabe, Gregory J.; Wolock, David M.
- JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, Vol. 55, Issue 4
Climate, soil water storage, and the average annual water balance
journal, July 1994
- Milly, P. C. D.
- Water Resources Research, Vol. 30, Issue 7
Climate Change Impacts on Streamflow and Subbasin-Scale Hydrology in the Upper Colorado River Basin
journal, August 2013
- Ficklin, Darren L.; Stewart, Iris T.; Maurer, Edwin P.
- PLoS ONE, Vol. 8, Issue 8
Interdependence of climate, soil, and vegetation as constrained by the Budyko curve: CLIMATE, SOIL, AND VEGETATION DEPENDENCE
journal, October 2012
- Gentine, Pierre; D'Odorico, Paolo; Lintner, Benjamin R.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 39, Issue 19
Independent effects of temperature and precipitation on modeled runoff in the conterminous United States: EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION ON RUNOFF
journal, November 2011
- McCabe, Gregory J.; Wolock, David M.
- Water Resources Research, Vol. 47, Issue 11
A multimodel ensemble approach to assessment of climate change impacts on the hydrology and water resources of the Colorado River Basin
journal, January 2007
- Christensen, N. S.; Lettenmaier, D. P.
- Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, Vol. 11, Issue 4
Climate precursors of multidecadal drought variability in the western United States: CLIMATE PRECURSORS OF DROUGHT VARIABILITY
journal, December 2004
- Hidalgo, Hugo G.
- Water Resources Research, Vol. 40, Issue 12
North American Droughts of the Last Millennium from a Gridded Network of Tree-Ring Data
journal, April 2007
- Herweijer, Celine; Seager, Richard; Cook, Edward R.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 20, Issue 7