Bracken, Cameron 1 ; Rajagopalan, Balaji 2 ; Gangopadhyay, Subhrendu 3
1 University of Colorado, Boulder
2 University of Colorado, Boulder; CIRES
3 Bureau of Reclamation
Extreme precipitation magnitude and timing varies drastically throughout the western US. Understanding the spatial and temporal variability of these events is critical for effective water management, safety of existing infrastructure, and identification of system risk under a changing climate. We investigate this variability within the four seasons using daily precipitation data from the Global Historical Climatology Network. Coherent spatial regions are identified using an extreme value oriented clustering method. Moisture sources and delivery mechanisms are identified for these regions within each season. We will discuss insights gained in this research which are important for building accurate extreme value forecasts.