Modeling the effect of snow on seasonal runoff within the Truckee River drainage basin

EXTRACT (SEE PDF FOR FULL ABSTRACT):We estimate monthly runoff for a 2-dimensional solution domain containing those areas tributary to Pyramid Lake, Nevada (the Truckee River drainage basin) at a 1-kilometer grid cell spacing. ... To calculate the effect of snow on the hydrologic system, we perform two experiments. In the first we assume that all precipitation falls as rain; in the second we assume that some precipitation falls as snow, thus available water is a combination of rain and snowmelt. We find that considering the effect of snow results in a more accurate representation of mean monthly flow rates, in particular the peak flow during the melt season in the Sierra Nevada. These preliminary results indicate that a relatively simple snow model can improve the representation of Truckee River basin hydrology, significantly reducing errors in modeled seasonal runoff.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Orndorff, Richard L., Craig, Rachael G.
Format:	conference_item biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	1994
Subjects:	Atmospheric Sciences, Limnology, PACLIM, hydrology,
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/1834/31495
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