Webinar: Historical Trends in Summer Precipitation, Baseflows, and Stormflows in New England and Projections of Seasonal Streamflows for Coastal Streams in Maine

Date Recorded

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Summary

USGS has documented historical trends (1950-2006) toward increasing summer precipitation, baseflows, and stormflows for unregulated streams in much of New England. Increases were large (>20%) in many places, and very large (>50%) at some streams in NH and VT. Some decreases in baseflows were documented in coastal and northern Maine where increased air temperature and evapotranspiration may have played a role. Calibrated watershed models for 4 coastal rivers in Maine were used to simulate future hydrologic conditions and streamflows in the watersheds over the next century. Precipitation and air temperature input to the models were from 5 General Circulation Models (GCMs) from the World Climate Research Programme's Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 multi-model dataset archive. The models indicate warmer winter conditions leading to increased winter snowmelt and rain-on-snow precipitation which causes higher winter streamflow and lower spring streamflow.

Resources

Transcript -- Dudley/Hodgkins 11.7.13

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