i
High-Elevation Precipitation Patterns: Using Snow Measurements to Assess Daily Gridded Datasets across the Sierra Nevada, California
-
2015
Source: Journal of Hydrometeorology, 16(4), 1773-1792.
[PDF-2.33 MB]
Details:
-
Journal Title:Journal of Hydrometeorology
-
Personal Author:
-
NOAA Program & Office:
-
Description:Gridded spatiotemporal maps of precipitation are essential for hydrometeorological and ecological analyses. In the United States, most of these datasets are developed using the Cooperative Observer (COOP) network of ground-based precipitation measurements, interpolation, and the Parameter-Elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) to map these measurements to places where data are not available. Here, we evaluate two daily datasets gridded at 1/16 degrees resolution against independent daily observations from over 100 snow pillows in California's Sierra Nevada from 1990 to 2010. Over the entire period, the gridded datasets performed reasonably well, with median total water-year errors generally falling within +/- 10%. However, errors in individual storm events sometimes exceeded 50% for the median difference across all stations, and in many cases, the same underpredicted storms appear in both datasets. Synoptic analysis reveals that these underpredicted storms coincide with 700-hPa winds from the west or northwest, which are associated with post-cold-frontal flow and disproportionately small precipitation rates in low-elevation valley locations, where the COOP stations are primarily located. This atmospheric circulation leads to a stronger than normal valley-to-mountain precipitation gradient and underestimation of actual mountain precipitation. Because of the small average number of storms (, 10) reaching California each year, these individual storm misses can lead to large biases (similar to 20%) in total water-year precipitation and thereby significantly affect estimates of statewide water resources.
-
Source:Journal of Hydrometeorology, 16(4), 1773-1792.
-
Document Type:
-
Rights Information:Other
-
Compliance:Submitted
-
Main Document Checksum:urn:sha256:388f9002b6f908799ed677f8483e3a1bd4a1b17f10719f89a9d40a1f67380bb8
-
File Type:
Supporting Files
-
No Additional Files
More +
Related Documents
-
Personal Author:Tulich, S. N.2015 | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 7(2), 938-962.Description:This paper describes a general method for the treatment of convective momentum transport (CMT) in large-scale dynamical solvers that use a cyclic, two...Personal Author:Cram, Thomas A. ;Compo, Gilbert P....2015 | Geoscience Data Journal, 2(1), 31-46.Description:The International Surface Pressure Databank (ISPD) is the world's largest collection of global surface and sea-level pressure observations. It was dev...2019 | Communications Biology, 2(1), 168.Description:Spatial planning increasingly incorporates theoretical predictions that artificial habitats assist species movement at or beyond range edges, yet evid...Personal Author:Andersson, Erik ;Day, Rusty...2019 | Metabolites, 9(2), 32.Description:The field of metabolomics generally lacks standardized methods for the preparation of samples prior to analysis. This is especially true for metabolom...2019 | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 7(2), 27.Description:Long-term ecological monitoring of reef fish populations often requires the simultaneous collection of data on benthic habitats in order to account fo...2019 | Scientific Reports, 9(1), 16874.Description:Tsunamis can propagate thousands of kilometres across the ocean. Precise calculations of arrival times are essential for reliable early warning system...A Long-Term Fine-Resolution Record of AVHRR Surface Temperatures for the Laurentian Great LakesCitePersonal Author:White, Charles ;Heidinger, Andrew...2018 | Remote Sensing, 10(8), 20.Description:Inland waters are warming at highly variable rates that often differ from regional air temperature trends. This variable warming is partially attribut...2018 | Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 123(11), 6022-6038.Description:Information about moisture distribution and transportation in the preconvection environment is very important for nowcasting and forecasting severe we...Personal Author:Liu, Yinghui ;Dworak, Richard...2018 | Remote Sensing, 10(12), 12.Description:Current methods for estimating the surface temperature of sea and lake ice-the ice surface temperature (IST)-utilize two satellite imager thermal band...Personal Author:Gochis, David ;Schumacher, Russ...2015 | Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 96(9), 1461-1487.Description:During the second week of September 2013, a seasonally uncharacteristic weather pattern stalled over the Rocky Mountain Front Range region of northern...2017 | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 17(2), 1417-1452.Description:The climate research community uses atmospheric reanalysis data sets to understand a wide range of processes and variability in the atmosphere, yet di...2018 | Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 123(21), 12368-12393.Description:We examine the distribution and fate of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the lower troposphere over the Northeast United States (NE US) using aircraft observa...2017 | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 17(2), 1161-1186.Description:We report measurements of CH4 (measured in situ by the Harvard University Picarro Cavity Ringdown Spectrometer (HUPCRS) and NOAA Unmanned Aircraft Sys...2017 | Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 10(8), 2941-2968.Description:VOCs related to oil and gas extraction operations in the United States were measured by H3O+ chemical ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (H3O...2017 | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 17(8), 5331-5354.Description:Ambient pine forest air was oxidized by OH, O-3, or NO3 radicals using an oxidation flow reactor (OFR) during the BEACHON-RoMBAS (Bio-hydro-atmosphere...2017 | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 9(1), 627-646.Description:Low and high clouds of shallow extent, especially stratocumulus and even more so for high-level cirrus clouds that reside where vertical resolution is...2017 | Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 10(5), 1911-1926.Description:The sum of all reactive nitrogen species (NOy) includes NOx (NO2 + NO) and all of its oxidized forms, and the accurate detection of NOy is critical to...Personal Author:Vander Woude, Andrea ;Ruberg, Steve...2019 | Journal of Great Lakes Research, 45(3), 536-546.Description:NOAA GLERL has routinely flown a hyperspectral imager to detect cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs) over the Great Lakes since 2015. Three ...Personal Author:Churnside, James ;Marchbanks, Richard...2017 | Remote Sensing, 9(4), 12.Description:The optical backscattering from particles in the ocean is an important quantity that has been measured by remote sensing techniques and in situ instru...2017 | Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 122(7), 3944-3952.Description:In the current study, the electromagnetic properties of porous aerosol particles are calculated in two ways. In the first, a porous target input file ...
More +
You May Also Like
2019 | Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124(23), 12631-12654
Description:
Accurate precipitation estimates are critical to simulating seasonal snowpack evolution. We conduct and evaluate high ‐resolution (4 ‐km) snowpack...
Dynamical downscaling improves upon gridded precipitation products in the Sierra Nevada, California
Cite
2017 | Clim Dyn 55, 111–129 (2020)
Description:
Uncertainties in gridded and regional climate estimates of precipitation are large at high elevations, where observations are sparse and spatial varia...
Checkout today's featured content at repository.library.noaa.gov