Hydroclimatology of the Mississippi River Basin

Abstract

Model estimated monthly water balance (WB) components (i.e., potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, and runoff [R]) for 848 United States (U.S.) Geological Survey 8‐digit hydrologic units located in the Mississippi River Basin (MRB) are used to examine the temporal and spatial variability of the MRB WB for water years 1901 through 2014. Results indicate the MRB can be divided into nine subregions with similar temporal variability in R. The WB analyses indicated ~79% of total water‐year MRB runoff is generated by four of the nine subregions and most of the R in the basin is derived from surplus (S) water during the months of December through May. Furthermore, the analyses showed temporal variability in S is largely controlled by the occurrence of negative atmospheric pressure anomalies over the western U.S. and positive atmospheric pressure anomalies over the eastern U.S. coast. This combination of atmospheric pressure anomalies results in an anomalous flow of moist air from the Gulf of Mexico into the MRB. In the context of paleo‐climate reconstructions of the Palmer Drought Severity Index, since about 1900 the MRB has experienced wetter conditions than were experienced during the previous 500 years.

The Water‐Year Water Balance of the Colorado River Basin

“…Additionally, the baseline CRB hydroclimatology depicted in this study can guide the selection of regions within the CRB for specific analyses. Furthermore, the hydroclimatic analysis of the CRB presented in this paper serves as a complement to the hydroclimatic analyses of the Missouri River Basin (a major tributary of the Mississippi River Basin) presented byWise et al (2018) and the analysis of the hydroclimatology of the Mississippi River Basin presented byMcCabe and Wolock (2019).This article is protected by copyright. All rights reservedwater-year runoff less than 33) and combinations of positive and negative 5-year averaged values of the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO).…”

Hydroclimatology of the Kaduna River Basin

“…Water Surplus (S) is the water that is in excess of PET (the climatic demand for water) and water needed to bring soil moisture storage to capacity (Olusola et al, 2017;Wolock & McCabe, 2018;McCabe & Wolock, 2019). Half of the S in a given month actually becomes R in the month while the remaining half is delayed till the succeeding month (Ayoade, 2008).…”

“…Information regarding hydroclimatological issues is crucial within the context of water and energy cycles, global warming and the increasing demand for water as a result of urbanization and economic growth (Sankarasubramanian & Vogel, 2002, 2003Oguntunde et al, 2006;Oguntunde et al, 2016). In most developed countries of the world, hydroclimatology of river basins has been comprehensively studied and the spatial and temporal variability of water balance (WB) components closely monitored (Sankarasubramanian & Vogel, 2002;Oguntunde et al, 2006;Wise et al, 2018;McCabe & Wolock, 2019). Concerted efforts have been made by several scholars to analyze, observe and model hydroclimatic data in the river basins (Sankarasubramanian & Vogel, 2003;Oguntunde et al, 2006Oguntunde et al, , 2016Wise et al, 2018;McCabe & Wolock, 2019).…”

“…In most developed countries of the world, hydroclimatology of river basins has been comprehensively studied and the spatial and temporal variability of water balance (WB) components closely monitored (Sankarasubramanian & Vogel, 2002;Oguntunde et al, 2006;Wise et al, 2018;McCabe & Wolock, 2019). Concerted efforts have been made by several scholars to analyze, observe and model hydroclimatic data in the river basins (Sankarasubramanian & Vogel, 2003;Oguntunde et al, 2006Oguntunde et al, , 2016Wise et al, 2018;McCabe & Wolock, 2019). Some studies have also examined temporal variability and trends of river basins hydroclimate, surface water and energy balances (Milly & Dunne, 2001;Qian et al, 2007).…”

Evaluation of hydroclimatic biases in the Community Earth System Model (CESM1) within the Mississippi River basin

“…At present, it is unclear whether recent changes in Mississippi River streamflow should be attributed primarily to changes in climate or to human modifications to the land surface and river channel (Criss & Shock, 2001;Munoz et al, 2018;Pinter et al, 2008;Watson et al, 2013). Precipitation 45 over the upper Mississippi River basin has increased by 0.66 mm per year (Ziegler et al, 2005) but evapotranspiration has also increased since the late 20 th century (Mccabe & Wolock, 2019;Qian et al, 2007). Observations alone cannot fully constrain these changes, as monitoring networks can be sparse, inconsistent, or have data that is difficult to access depending on the hydrologic variable (Fekete & Vörösmarty, 2007).…”