Yosemite Hydroclimate Update

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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
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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 Flat More all-weather (liquid
frozen), live, quality automated precipitation
measurements (now Gin Flat, Tuolumne
Meadows) Hodgdon Meadows Geonor, Tuolumne
Meadows Water Tank High elevation (Mt Warren,
Mt Hoffman) (all but precip) Mt Warren ready all
summer, helicopter dependent Automated, live,
full-complement Yosemite Valley site Still on
the list Several 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
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www.yosemite.dri.edu
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Mt Warren
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Mt Warren
Mt Warren (12327 ft) Toward South. July 2000.
Our highest pine sites here
Warren Bench Rd ends here
Deer Creek Canyon
To Mono Lake
Lundy Canyon
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
Photo Connie Millar
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White Mtn Summit Reconfigured July 2004
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Grids. Reanalysis Resolution
Global
Regional (slightly smaller pixel resolution)
Desired Resolution About 1 km
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Sierra Annual Jan-Dec 700 mb Temp (10,000 ft)
1 C
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Sierra Oct-Mar 700 mb Temp (10,000 ft)
Freezing
1 C
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Sierra Mar-May 700 mb Temp (10,000 ft)
Freezing
1 C
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Sierra Summer Jun-Aug 700 mb Temp (10,000 ft)
1 C
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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
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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.
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• 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.

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Aniakchak, Proposed Sites near Crater
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ftp.wrcc.dri.edu/nps/chis ftp.wrcc.dri.edu/nps/al
aska ftp.wrcc.dri.edu/nps/photodocumentation.pdf
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• WRCC Project 2005-06 Goals
• Complete the weather/climate data inventory of
  each of the 32 IM 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 IM 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

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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
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Spring
Summer
Temperature
Autumn
Winter
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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
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Last six years Sep-Aug Temperature As departure
(F) from 1961-1990 1971-2000 1950-1995 1
895-2000
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Thank You