An Application of Advanced Ensemble Streamflow Prediction Methods to Assess Potential Impacts of the 2015 – 2016 ENSO Event over the Colorado River Basin

Abstract:

Water resource managers throughout the Western United States have struggled with persistent and severe drought since the early 2000s. In the Colorado River Basin, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC) provides forecasts of water supply conditions to resource managers throughout the basin using Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP) methods that are largely driven by historical observations of temperature and precipitation. Currently, the CBRFC does not have a way to incorporate information from climatic teleconnections such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). ENSO describes warming sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean that typically correlate with cool and wet winter precipitation events in California and the Lower Colorado River Basin during an El Niño event. Past research indicates the potential to identify analog ENSO events to evaluate the impact to reservoir storage in the Colorado River Basin. Current forecasts indicate the potential for one of the strongest El Niño events on record this winter.

In this study, information regarding the upcoming ENSO event is used to inform water supply forecasts over the Upper Colorado River Basin. These forecasts are then compared to traditionally derived water supply forecast in an attempt to evaluate the possible impact of the El Niño event to water supply over the Colorado River Basin.