HYDROLOGY: A broad analysis of streamflow, sediment transport, prehistoric climate, modern climate change, and changes in sea-surface temperature (El Niño & La Niña).

Click here to determine your own analysis of what the Colorado River system of reservoirs will look like in a future.

U.S. Drought Portal; Archive of Palmer Drought Severity Index;

NOAA Climate Services; Upper Basin RISA; Lower Basin RISA & here

United States Global Change Research Program

Timeline - The discovery of global warming

Animations of American Southwest climatologies. University of Washington.

Video - Global Warming: Is it True? James L. Powell

DOCUMENTS

1946 - Cloudburst floods in Utah. Woolley. US Geological Survey.

1953 - Depletion of water supplies allocated to state of Colorado by Colorado River Compacts. Hill. Colorado Water Conservation Board. (notes on report)
Note: Includes discussion of oil shale development.

1965 - Water Supplies of the Colorado River. Tipton. Upper Colorado River Commission. (notes on report).

1976 - Long-term surface-water supply and streamflow trends in the upper Colorado River basin. Stockton and Jacoby. National Science Foundation.

1976 - Hydrology and Sedimentology of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Emmett M. Laursen and Elliot Silverston.

1984 - Secular Variations in Streamflow in Western United States. Meko and Stockton. Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology.

1985 - The Colorado River: Instability and Basin Management. Graf. Association of American Geographers.

1986 - Lake Powell Evaporation Study. Bureau of Reclamation.

1988 - Hydrologic determination of the Upper Basin. Bureau of Reclamation.

1990 - An assessment of severe and sustained drought in the Colorado River Basin. Kendall and Dracup.

1991 - Sediment Transport in the Colorado River Basin. National Research Council.

1993 - The Colorado River Basin and Climatic Change: The Sensitivity of Streamflow and Water Supply to Variations in Temperature and Precipitation. Nash and GLeick. Environmental Protection Agency.

1995 - A special study on severe and sustained drought in the Colorado River basin. American Water Resources Association.

1997 - Climate Variability, Climate Change, and Western Water. Miller. National Center for Atmospheric Research.

1997 - Colorado River Basin Study. Pontius. Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission.

1998 - 2000 Years of Drought Variability in Central United States. Woodhouse and Overpeck. American Meteorological Society.

2000 - Alternative principal components regression procedures for dendrohydrologic reconstructions. Hidalgo. Water Resources Research.

2001 - Changes in the Onset of Spring in the Western United States. Cayan et al. American Meteorological Society.

2002 - Recent Sediment Studies Refute Glen Canyon Dam Hypothesis. Rubin et al. Eos. American Geophysical Union.

2003 - Patterns and sources of multidecadal oscillations in drought-sensitive tree-ring records from the central and southern Rocky Mountains. Gray. Geophysical Research Letters.

2003 - Changes in snowmelt runoff timing in western North America under the 'business as usual' climate change scenario. Stewart et al. Climate Change Journal.

2003 - A 431-Yr Reconstruction of Western Colorado Snowpack from Tree Rings. Woodhouse. Journal of Climate.

2004 - The effects of climate change on the water resources of the west: Introduction and overview. Barnett et al. Climate Change Journal.

2004 - Tree-ring reconstruction of Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. Gray et al.

2004 - The effects of climate change on the hydrology and water resources of the Colorado River basin. Christensen et al. Climate Change Journal.

2004 - Long-Term Aridity in the Western United States. Cook et al. Science.

2004 - Climate precursors of multidecadal drought varibility in the western United States. Hidalgo.

2004 - The Western U.S. Drought: How Bad Is It? Piechota et al. Eos.

2004 - Streamflow variability and Reconstruction for the Colorado River Basin. Piechota et al. American Society of Civil Engineers.

2004 - Pacific and Atlantic Ocean influences on multidecaddal drought frequency in the USA. McCabe, et al. Proceedings of National Academy.

2005 - Trends and Variability in Snowmelt Runoff in the Western United States. McCabe & Clark. American Meteorological Society.

2005 - Declining Mountain Snowpack in Western North America. Mote et al. American Meteorological Society.

2005 - Climatic Fluctuations, Drought, and Flow in the Colorado River Basin. Webb. US Geological Survey.

2005 - The twentieth-century pluvial in the western United States. Woodhouse et al. American Geophysical Union.

2005 - Seasonal Cycle Shifts in Hydroclimatology over the Western United States. Regonda et al.

2006 - Relationships between Pacific and Atlantic ocean sea surface temperatures and U.S. streamflow. Tootle & Piechota. Water Resources Research.

2006 - Updated Streamflow Reconstructions for the Upper Colorado River Basin. Woodhouse et al. Water Resources Research.

2007 - Hydrologic Determination for Upper Basin. Bureau of Reclamation.

2007 - A multimodel ensemble approach to assessment of climate change impacts on the hydrology and water resources of the Colorado River basin. Christensen & Lettenmaier. Hydrology and Earth Sciences.

2007 - North American Droughts of the last Millennium from a Gridded Network of Tree-Ring Data. Herweijer et al. Journal of Climate.

2007 - Past Peak Water in the Southwest. Hoerling & Eischeid. Southwest Hydrology.

2007 - Model Projections of an Imminenet Transition to a More Arid Climate in Southwestern North America. Seager et al. Science.

2007 - Asssociations of Decadal to Multidecadal Sea-Surface Temperature Variability with Upper Colorado River Flow. McCabe et al. American Water Resources Association.

2007 - Medieval Drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Meko et al. American Geophysical Union.

2007 - Colorado River Basin Water Management: Evaluating and Adjusting to Hydroclimatic Variability. National Research Council. National Academy of Sciences.

2007 - Impact of disturbed desert soils on duration of mountain snow cover. Painter et al. Geophysical Research Letters.

2007 - Five hundred years of hydrological drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Timilsen et al. Journal of American Water Resources Association

2007 - Warming may create substantial water supply shortages in the Colorado River basin. McCabe and Wolock. Geophysical Research Letters.

2007 - Changes in Aridity in the Western United States. Hidalgo et al.

2008 - Stationarity Is Dead: Whither Water Management. Milly et al. Science.
Death of stationarity presentation by Stephen Gray.

2008 - Human-Induced Changes in the Hydrology of the Western United States. Barnett, et al. Science.

2008 - When will Lake Mead go dry? Barnett and Pierce. Journal of Water Resources Research.

2008 - Climate Warming and 21st Century Drought in Southwestern North America. MacDonald et al. Eos, American Geophysical Union.

2008 -Models, Assumptions, and Stakeholders: Planning for Water Supply Variability in the Colorado River Basin. Garrick et al. American Water Resouces Association.

2008 - Long-Term Global Heating from Energy Usage. Eos. American Geophysical Union.

2008 - Climate Change in Colorado: A Synthesis to Support Water Resources Management and Adaption. University of Colorado at Boulder.

2008 - Climate Change and Water. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

2009 - Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions. Solomon et al.

2009 - Climate Change and Water Resources Management: A Federal Perspective. Brekke et al.

2009 - Persistent Positive Atlantic Oscillation during Medieval Climate. Trouet et al.

2009 - Sustainable water deliveries from the Colorado River in a changing climate. Barnett & Pierce.

2009 - Global Climate Change Impacts in the USA. U.S. Global Change Research Program

2009 - Water supply risk on the Colorado River: Can management mitigate? Rajagopalan et al. (Nowak PowerPoint) (Barsugli PowerPoint)

2009 - Climate Change Literature Synthesis. USBR.

2009 - Assessing the future of Wyoming's water resources. Univ. of Wyo.

2009 - Biological consequences of earlier snowmelt from desert dust deposition in alpine landscapes. Steltzer et al.