HR: 09:00h
AN: U51A-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Influences of Climate Trends on Snowpack and Wildfire in the West
AU: * Mote, P W
EM: philip@atmos.washington.edu
AF: JISAO Climate Impacts Group, Box 354235 University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 United States
AU: Hamlet, A F
EM: hamleaf@u.washington.edu
AF: JISAO Climate Impacts Group, Box 354235 University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 United States
AU: Hamlet, A F
EM: hamleaf@u.washington.edu
AF: Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Box 352700 University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 United States
AU: Gedalof, Z
EM: zgedalof@uoguelph.ca
AF: Dept of Geography, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1 Canada
AB: A comprehensive picture of change in the Western U.S. is emerging from the work of several research groups: spring snowpack amounts have declined, peak snowmelt-driven streamflow has drifted earlier in the spring, winter flows have increased and summer flows have decreased. Recent years have also seen very large wildfires, which cannot be explained simply as the latent effect of decades of fire suppression. Using modeling and statistical analysis of observations, we (1) show how patterns of variability and change in both snowpack and wildfire are related to climate variables, (2) provide indications of how these trends will unfold in the future, and (3) discuss implications for managing water and ecological resources in the West.
DE: 1655 Water cycles (1836)
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (1827)
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting