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Title: Seasonal snowpack modeling and snow dataset evaluation to support operational water supply
forecasting
Abstract: Operational water-resource planning faces an increased challenge with changing seasonal
snowpack in mountain watersheds due to shifts in timing and magnitude of peak snow depth
and extent. An example region is the Western United States, where there is a demonstrated
decline in extent and amount of seasonal snow in mountain ranges such as the Sierra Nevada,
California, or the Rocky Mountains, Colorado. Causes of the changes include increased
average winter temperatures, resulting in more precipitation falling as rain over snow. The
emergence of spatially and temporally complete snow water equivalent data products and the
increasing maturity of physical-based snow energy balance models are giving operational water
forecasters a new opportunity to adapt to the changing climatological conditions and ensure
continued accurate water supply forecasting. One example for such settings is the Colorado
Basin River Forecast Center, where the data products and new modeling strategies are
currently evaluated. This seminar will introduce the basis of physical based snow energy
balance modeling, potential improvements to model input data, and how spatial data products
are evaluated for applicability in operational water forecast environments.
Affiliation: Senior Research Scholar at Boise State University.