Paper: ‘Western Water and Climate Change’.
(2015), ‘Western Water and Climate Change’ Ecological Applications, 25: 2069–2093.
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Projections are for continued and, likely, increased warming trends across the region, with a near certainty of continuing changes in seasonality of snowmelt and streamflows, and a strong potential for attendant increases in evaporative demands.
Projections of future precipitation are less conclusive, although likely the northern- most West will see precipitation increases while the southernmost West sees declines.
However, most of the region lies in a broad area where some climate models project precipitation increases while others project declines, so that only increases in precipitation uncertainties can be projected with any confidence.
The Colorado River is a system in which overuse and growing demands are projected to be even more challenging than climate-change-induced flow reductions.
Erratum Dettinger et al. were alerted to an error in their paper published in the December 2015 issue (M. D. Dettinger, B. Udall, and A. Georgakakos.
Western water and climate change.
9d)… In the West, about 81% of the irrigation waters are consumed by evapotranspiration and plant growth,” is an error.