Changing Climate of Idaho: Future Prediction Maps

Scientific evidence of decreasing snow packs (Mote et. al., 2005; Mote, 2006) and changing streamflows (Gahn et. al., 2006; Gahn and Shippert, 2006) in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) have prompted water managers around the West to begin planning for the potential effects of climate change on water resources. Idaho is particularly sensitive to potential changes in both water supply and demand, because the state's economy depends heavily upon agriculture, forestry, and tourism, as well as hydroelectric power generation; all of which are at risk due to rapid shifts in climate. Because of this, numerous scenarios of possible meteorological and hydrological conditions are needed to allow for planning of the state's future. We outline a method to improve the downscaling of climate scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as how to combine the downscaled climate scenarios with historic snow cover images to produce future snow related products.