Selected inputs for examining the complex relations between climate and streamflow in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States

Streams provide water for human activities and consumption in much of the world. Streamflow is largely controlled by climate forces, therefore it is likely sensitive to climate changes. We analyzed daily air temperature (AT), precipitation (P), and stream discharge (Q) metrics for 124 watersheds in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, United States, from 1981 through 2020. Spatial-raster datasets of daily P in mm were downloaded from Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM; http://prism.oregonstate.edu) on March 30, 2021, and datasets of daily AT in degrees Celsius (°C) were downloaded June 22, 2021, both at a 4-square kilometer (km2) resolution for the contiguous U.S. The final quarter of approved 2020 data for both datasets was downloaded between January 6 and 8, 2022. Daily mean-Q data were downloaded from the USGS’s National Water Information System on January 5, 2022, checked for completeness, and converted to cubic meters per second. The input data sets used to derive trends and PCA results are presented here in the zip file found below. Due to Excel’s maximum row constraints, the files have been subset by decade. Please refer to the linked manuscript below for more information.