Bazlen et al. (2025) Hydrograph Spread Increases as Snow Declines Across the Western U.S.

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-03
• Authors: Kyla Bazlen, Adrienne Marshall, Steven M. Smith, Arielle Koshkin
• DOI: 10.1029/2025gl116816

Research Groups

• University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Short Summary

This study investigates the previously unexamined influence of changing snow characteristics on the spread of streamflow distribution throughout the water year. It finds that lower peak snow water equivalent (SWE) is significantly associated with wider streamflow distributions across the western United States.

Objective

• To evaluate the relationship between peak snow water equivalent (SWE peak), day of SWE peak (DOPS), and four measures of the width of the streamflow distribution.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Western United States
• Temporal Scale: Throughout the water year (daily resolution for snow reanalysis product)

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not explicitly stated as models used by the authors for simulation; however, the WUS-SR product is a reanalysis.
• Data sources:
  • Reference gage streamflow data
  • Western United States UCLA Daily Snow Reanalysis product (WUS‐SR)
  • Snow pillow data

Main Results

• Low peak SWE is associated with wider streamflow distributions at 63%–85% of gages across the western U.S., depending on the measure used to assess streamflow temporal distribution (p FDR < 0.1 at 43%–61% of gages).
• The observed effects show consistent sign but varying magnitude when using snow pillow data compared to the WUS-SR product.
• Projected declines in SWE peak suggest that water users may experience changes in water availability beyond those expected from streamflow quantity and timing alone, due to these widening distributions.

Contributions

• First study to investigate the influence of changing snow on the spread (width) of the streamflow distribution.
• Highlights a new dimension of water availability impacts from snow decline, emphasizing changes in the temporal distribution of streamflow rather than just total quantity or timing of the peak.

Funding

• Not specified in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Bazlen2025Hydrograph,
  author = {Bazlen, Kyla and Marshall, Adrienne and Smith, Steven M. and Koshkin, Arielle},
  title = {Hydrograph Spread Increases as Snow Declines Across the Western U.S.},
  journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1029/2025gl116816},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl116816}
}