California 270-meter Basin Characterization Model using Weather Generator Scenarios, Part I - Monthly Climate and Hydrology

This data release includes the downscaled climate inputs from twenty-four Weather Generator Scenarios and hydrologic outputs using the Basin Characterization Model (BCM) version 8 (v8), described in Flint and others (2021a), with a 270 by 270-meter spatial resolution at a monthly time steps from water years 1916 to 2018 for California.

The twenty-four Weather Generator scenarios are defined as:

  Scenario 1: Baseline
  Scenario 2: -25% average (ave) precipitation (ppt), +2 degrees Celsius (°C)
  Scenario 3: -25% ave ppt, +3°C
  Scenario 4: -25% ave ppt, +4°C
  Scenario 5: -25% ave ppt, +5°C
  Scenario 6: -12% ave ppt, +1°C
  Scenario 7: -12% ave ppt, +2°C
  Scenario 8: -12% ave ppt, +3°C
  Scenario 9: -12% ave ppt, +4°C
  Scenario 10: -12% ave ppt, +5°C
  Scenario 11: 0% ave ppt, +1°C
  Scenario 12: 0% ave ppt, +2°C
  Scenario 13: 0% ave ppt, +3°C
  Scenario 14: 0% ave ppt, +4°C
  Scenario 15: 0% ave ppt, +5°C
  Scenario 16: +12% ave ppt, +1°C
  Scenario 17: +12% ave ppt, +2°C
  Scenario 18: +12% ave ppt, +3°C
  Scenario 19: +12% ave ppt, +4°C
  Scenario 20: +12% ave ppt, +5°C
  Scenario 21: +25% ave ppt, +2°C
  Scenario 22: +25% ave ppt, +3°C
  Scenario 23: +25% ave ppt, +4°C
  Scenario 24: +25% ave ppt, +5°C

This data release includes 72 child items, consisting of three child items for each of the twenty-four Weather Generator Scenarios. The three child items for each scenario contain: 1) monthly climate variables, 2) hydrology BCM variables, and 3) water year summaries. The monthly climate variables child items contain precipitation (PPT), maximum air temperature (TMX), minimum air temperature (TMN), and potential evapotranspiration (PET). The monthly hydrology BCM variables child items contain actual evapotranspiration (AET), climatic water deficit (CWD), snowpack or snow water equivalent (PCK), recharge (RCH), runoff (RUN), and soil moisture storage (STR). The water year summaries child items contain annual average summaries of each of the monthly climate and monthly hydrology BCM variables for each scenario.