climate information needs for the national park service in the … · station yosemite park...
TRANSCRIPT
Climate Information Needs for the
National Park Service in the Southern Sierra Nevada
Kelly Redmond
Laura Edwards
Western Regional Climate CenterDesert Research Institute
Reno Nevada
Climate, Ecosystems, and Resources in Eastern CaliforniaBishop CA, 2008 November 5-8
www.wrcc.dri.edu/nps
32 Networks. 32 Climate Inventory Reports. www.wrcc.dri.edu/nps
SIEN Project Objectives
• Assess the suitability of existing weather and climate data for foreseeable operational, monitoring, and research efforts. Park units: Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Devils Postpile. = SIEN: Sierra Nevada Network
• Summarize results and implications of climate model projections for SIEN park units, and their uncertainties.
• Analyze ability of existing weather station network to monitor the average regional climate and temporal and spatial climate variability across the SIEN region.
• Identify high priority weather stations for SIEN and provide recommendations on best ways to maintain these sites over the long term
• Identify and prioritize additional instrumentation that SIEN should consider adding to existing sites.
• Identify / prioritize potential locations for new / augmented weather stations that would fill gaps in monitoring.
• Provide recommendations on data management options and dissemination pathways for climate data and data products to managers, public and research community.
From Westmap(PRISM-derived)
Yosemite HQ vs Yosemite South Entrance TMAX
Figure 44. Residual from Double Mass analysis for monthly mean minimum temperature using candidate station Yosemite Park Headquarters and four reference stations, Hetch Hetchy (green), Calaveras Big Trees (blue), Cherry Valley Dam (red), and Auburn (black). Vertical black dashed lines indicate intervals where three or more stations detect an inhomogeneity.
Tmin. Double mass, Yosemite Park HQ versus Hetch Hetchy, Calaveras Big Trees, Cherry Valley Dam, and Auburn.
Yosemite Park HQ Tmax Yosemite South Entrance Tmax
Tmax Tmin
Metadata graphics for daily coop data. Yosemite Park HQ.
Temperature
First third of century2011-2040 “2025”
Winter
Spring
Summer
Autumn
3 scenarios
Thanks to John Abatzoglou
Temperature
Second third of century2041-2070 “2055”
Winter
Spring
Summer
Autumn
3 scenarios
Thanks to John Abatzoglou
Temperature
Third third of century2071-2100 “2085”
Winter
Spring
Summer
Autumn
3 scenarios
Thanks to John Abatzoglou
R. Seager, M.F. Ting, I.M. Held, Y. Kushnir, J. Lu, G. Vecchi, H.-P. Huang, N. Harnik, A.
Leetmaa, N.-C. Lau, C. Li, J. Velez, N. Naik, 2007. Model Projections of an Imminent Transition to a More Arid
Climate in Southwestern North America. Science, DOI:
10.1126/science.1139601
Average of 19 climate models.
2007.
Figure byGabriel Vecchi.
www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/div/ocp/drought/scienc
e.shtml
Precipitation
First third of century2011-2040 “2025”
Winter
Spring
Summer
Autumn
3 scenarios
Thanks to John Abatzoglou
Precipitation
Second third of century2041-2070 “2055”
Winter
Spring
Summer
Autumn
3 scenarios
Thanks to John Abatzoglou
Correlation analysiscomments
Several types of summaries And presentations available.
Sierra Nevada12 MonthsThru September 2007
Winter of 2007-2008
A potential analogfor climate change
???
Water YearOct-SepPrecip
SouthCoastalCalifornia
1895/96thru2006/07
Main conclusions
Restore the NWS Coop Station at Yosemite Valley to good qualityAppears to be happening as of August-September 2008
Better high elevation monitoring needed
Benchmark stations in each NPS park unit
Correlation analysisPrecipitation
West-side generally well correlatedWestside-eastside modest correlationsGood north-south relations on the west side
TemperatureModest west-side to eastside correlationsMonthly and seasonal, and elevational, differences
Much of east portion of Sequoia / Kings Canyon is undersampled,but, remote, snowy, high, hard to access
Main conclusions
Well-maintained RAWS stations provide good quality data
Retain a few manual stations
Unofficial Tuolumne Ranger Station data very good quality. Continue with this site.
Freezing levels are rising, though not the same way in all seasonsHook to methods to portray this
Leveraging (often mutual) will be needed to site and maintain stations
Access to data is available, is improving, but still needs more emphasis
Thank You