2013
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WWA releases preliminary assessment of September 2013 flooding along Colorado's Front Range
SpotlightWestern Water Assessment, along with the NOAA ESRL Physical Science Division and the CSU Colorado Climate Center, just released a preliminary assessment of the weather and climate context of recent flooding along Colorado's Front Range. This assessment compares the precipitation and flooding to historic events, explains the large-scale weather patterns responsible for the rains, and discusses connections to climate change. Click here to watch a presentation about the information in this assessment.
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New WWA publication finds worst watershed stresses may now become the new normal
SpotlightWWA's Kristen Averyt and James Meldrum, along with co-authors from USDA, Tufts University and the Union of Concerned Scientists, recently completed an analysis of surface water in the United States. Their paper, published in Environmental Research Letters, evaluated supplies and demands on freshwater resources for each of the 2,103 watersheds in the continental United States, using a large suite of existing data sets. They identified times of extreme water stress between 1999 and 2007, and they estimated future surface water stress—using existing climate projections—for every watershed. In the paper, Averyt et al. also diagnosed the reasons contributing to stress.
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WWA Panel at CU Boulder discusses extreme weather and connections to climate change
SpotlightA panel of science experts convened at the University of Colorado Boulder on September 25, to discuss weather and climate related to the recent devastating floods. Panelists from several institutions came together to discuss the unusual weather conditions that caused the floods, the historical context and the potential influence of human-caused climate change on this extreme event. View the webcast.
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Climate change to pose new challenges for already-stressed Western watersheds
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