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Hydroclimatology of the Mississippi River Basin

Journal of the American Water Resources Association
By:  and 
https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12749

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Abstract

Model estimated monthly water balance (WB) components (i.e., potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration, and runoff [R]) for 848 United States (U.S.) Geological Survey 8-digit hydrologic units located in the Mississippi River Basin (MRB) are used to examine the temporal and spatial variability of the MRB WB for water years 1901 through 2014. Results indicate the MRB can be divided into nine subregions with similar temporal variability in R. The WB analyses indicated ~79% of total water-year MRB runoff is generated by four of the nine subregions and most of the R in the basin is derived from surplus (S) water during the months of December through May. Furthermore, the analyses showed temporal variability in S is largely controlled by the occurrence of negative atmospheric pressure anomalies over the western U.S. and positive atmospheric pressure anomalies over the eastern U.S. coast. This combination of atmospheric pressure anomalies results in an anomalous flow of moist air from the Gulf of Mexico into the MRB. In the context of paleo-climate reconstructions of the Palmer Drought Severity Index, since about 1900 the MRB has experienced wetter conditions than were experienced during the previous 500 years.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Hydroclimatology of the Mississippi River Basin
Series title Journal of the American Water Resources Association
DOI 10.1111/1752-1688.12749
Volume 55
Issue 4
Year Published 2019
Language English
Publisher Wiley
Contributing office(s) WMA - Integrated Modeling and Prediction Division
Description 12 p.
First page 1053
Last page 1064
Country United States
Other Geospatial Mississippi River Basin
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
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