Weather and climate forecasts

Weather and climate forecasts

   Overview
   Weather forecasts
   Subseasonal climate forecasts
   Seasonal climate forecasts
   Decadal climate forecasts

Overview

Figure 1. CBRFC forecast evolution plot showing the multiple probabilistic forecasts of April-July Lake Powell inflows that were made at each stage of the 2020 forecast season as the snowpack evolved. Image: CBRFC; Annotations: Jeff Lukas.

Relevance

Weather forecasts (out to 10 days) are routinely used by stakeholders across the basin for guiding short-term operational decision-making, such as in agriculture, recreation, and transportation, and water resource management. NOAA Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC) incorporates weather forecasts into short-term streamflow forecasts and peak runoff forecasts, and also into seasonal streamflow forecasts.

Additional Resources

State of the Science Report

Chapter 8 of the State of the Science report covers many aspects of Streamflow Forecasting in greater detail; Section 8.4 is specific to mid-range forecasts (seasonal and longer). Chapter 6, on Hydrologic Modeling, has a detailed description of the CBRFC forecast model framework in Section 6.3, under National Weather Service Models.

New and Notable Research (2020-present)

Summary