Part 1: Yosemite Hydroclimate Update Kelly Redmond, Greg McCurdy, Dave Simeral Western Regional Climate Center Desert Research Institute 2005 October 5-6.

Part 1:

Yosemite Hydroclimate Update

Kelly Redmond, Greg McCurdy, Dave Simeral

Western Regional Climate Center

Desert Research Institute

2005 October 5-6

Yosemite Valley, California

Suggested near-term Yosemite climate priorities (2004 YHMW)2005 Status

Full communications to all sites along 120 corridor(in fact, all hydromet sites anywhere in and near the park)

About the same, will add another GOES antenna at Gin FlatMore all-weather (liquid & frozen), live, quality automated precipitation measurements (now: Gin Flat, Tuolumne Meadows)

Hodgdon Meadows Geonor, Tuolumne Meadows Water TankHigh elevation: (Mt Warren, Mt Hoffman) (all but precip)

Mt Warren ready all summer, helicopter dependentAutomated, live, full-complement Yosemite Valley site

Still on the listSeveral benchmark sites (complete hydro and energy budget, well exposed, permanent, reference-quality climate stations)(e.g.: Gin, Dana, Crane Lookout, Valley, Tenaya/Tuolumne, Hodgdon/Crane Flat)

Retain historical manual NWS valley cooperative station

Augment instrumentation at north Yosemite sites

RAWS Stations for Wawona and El Portal in the works

www.yosemite.dri.edu

Mt Warren

Mt Warren

View looking south up Deer Cr (NB: beautiful Pleistocene Rock Glacial cyn), a tributary of Lundy Cyn (note also limber pines at left foreslope (one of our sites). 7/00

Warren Bench Rd ends hereOur highest pine sites here

Deer Creek Canyon

Lundy Canyon

To Mono Lake

Mt Warren (12327 ft) Toward South. July 2000.

Photo: Connie Millar

White Mtn Summit Reconfigured July 2004

Grids.

Reanalysis Resolution:

Global

Regional(slightly smaller; pixel resolution)

Desired Resolution

About 1 km

Sierra Annual Jan-Dec 700 mb Temp (10,000 ft)

1 C

Sierra Oct-Mar 700 mb Temp (10,000 ft)

Freezing

1 C

Sierra Mar-May 700 mb Temp (10,000 ft)

Freezing

1 C

Sierra Summer Jun-Aug 700 mb Temp (10,000 ft)

1 C

Part 2:

A Weather Monitoring Network

for the

National Park System

Kelly Redmond

Western Regional Climate Center

Desert Research Institute

2005 October 5-6

Yosemite Valley, California

NATIONAL PARKS OMNIBUS MANAGEMENT ACT OF 1998

“The Secretary shall undertake a program of inventory and monitoring of National Park System resources to establish baseline information and to provide information on the long-term trends in the condition of National Park System resources. The monitoring program shall be developed in cooperation with other Federal monitoring and information collection efforts to ensure a cost-effective approach.”

“The Secretary shall … assure the full and proper utilization of the results of scientific studies for park management decisions.

NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program

• Determine the status and trends in selected indicators of the condition of park ecosystems to allow managers to make better-informed decisions and to work more effectively with other agencies and individuals for the benefit of park resources.

• Provide early warning of abnormal conditions of selected resources to help develop effective mitigation measures and reduce costs of management.

• Provide data to better understand the dynamic nature and condition of park ecosystems and to provide reference points for comparisons with other, altered environments.

• Provide data to meet certain legal and Congressional mandates related to natural resource protection and visitor enjoyment.

• Provide a means of measuring progress towards performance goals.

Aniakchak, Proposed Sites near Crater

ftp.wrcc.dri.edu/nps/chis

ftp.wrcc.dri.edu/nps/alaska

ftp.wrcc.dri.edu/nps/photodocumentation.pdf

WRCC Project 2005-06 Goals

• Complete the weather/climate data inventory of each of the 32 I&M Networks (a total of about 270 park units)

• Produce and assist in production of network-specific reports

• Develop and populate a database documenting weather stations in and near I&M Parks

• Evaluate adequacy of coverage and identify major information gaps

• Evaluate existing weather and climate monitoring protocols

• Produce templates for monitoring protocols that can be adopted and individualized by other parks

• Begin development of network and park specific web pages to access, display, manipulate and summarize data

• Finish this by Autumn 2006

Ending Year

1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Oc

tob

er-

Ma

rch

Te

mp

era

ture

(F

)

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

Western United States (11 states) Winter Temperature (October-March)Provisional data from NCDC / CPC. 11-year running mean in blue.Units: Inches. Data source NOAA cooperative network. Thru 2004-05.

Western Regional Climate Center

Year

1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

An

nu

al M

ean

Tem

per

atu

re (

F )

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

Western United States (11 states) Annual Jan-Dec TemperatureProvisional data from NCDC / CPC. Blue: 11-year running mean.Units: Inches. Data source NOAA cooperative network, thru May 2005.

Western Regional Climate Center

Courtesy of Mike Dettinger, USGS / Scripps.

Dettinger MD. 2005. From climate change spaghetti to climate-change distributions for 21st Century California. San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science. Vol. 3, Issue 1, (March 2005), Article 4. http://repositories.cdlib.org/jmie/sfews/vol3/iss1/art4

Ending Year

1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Win

ter

Tem

per

atu

re (

F )

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

Western United States (11 states) Dec-Jan-Feb TemperatureProvisional data from NCDC / CPC. Blue: 11-year running mean.Units: Inches. Data source NOAA cooperative network, thru May 2005.

Western Regional Climate Center

Year

1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Tem

pe

ratu

re (

F )

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

Western United States (11 states) Mar-Apr-May TemperatureProvisional data from NCDC / CPC. Blue: 11-year running mean.Units: Inches. Data source NOAA cooperative network.

Western Regional Climate Center

Year

1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Au

tum

n T

emp

erat

ure

( F

)

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

Western United States (11 states) Sept-Oct-Nov TemperatureProvisional data from NCDC / CPC. Blue: 11-year running mean.Units: Inches. Data source NOAA cooperative network, thru May 2005.

Western Regional Climate Center

Spring Summer

Autumn Winter

Temperature Year

1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Tem

pe

ratu

re (

F )

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

Western United States (11 states) June-July-August TemperatureProvisional data from NCDC / CPC. Blue: 11-year running mean.Units: Inches. Data source NOAA cooperative network, thru Aug 2005.

Western Regional Climate Center

Ending Year

1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Oc

tob

er-

Ma

rch

Pre

cip

ita

tio

n (

inc

he

s)

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Western United States (11 states) October-March Precipitation.Provisional data from NCDC / CPC. 111 Winters, 1895-2005.Units: Inches. Data source NOAA cooperative network.

11-year running mean

individual winters

Western Regional Climate Center

Ending Year

1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Wat

er Y

ear

Pre

cip

itat

ion

( in

ches

)

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

Western United States (11 states) Water Year (Oct-Sep) Precipitation.Provisional data from NCDC / CPC. Blue: 11-year running mean.Units: Inches. Data source NOAA cooperative network, thru mid Sept 2005.

Western Regional Climate Center

Courtesy of Mike Dettinger, USGS / Scripps.

Dettinger MD. 2005. From climate change spaghetti to climate-change distributions for 21st Century California. San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science. Vol. 3, Issue 1, (March 2005), Article 4. http://repositories.cdlib.org/jmie/sfews/vol3/iss1/art4

Last six years

Sep-Aug Temperature

As departure (F) from

1961-1990

1971-2000

1950-1995

1895-2000

Thank You