Examining controls on peak annual streamflow and floods  in the Fraser River Basin of British Columbia

Curry, Charles L.; Zwiers, Francis W.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2285-2018

Articles | Volume 22, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2285-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Understanding and predicting Earth system and hydrological...

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-2285-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 4

Research article

|

16 Apr 2018

Research article |

| 16 Apr 2018

Examining controls on peak annual streamflow and floods in the Fraser River Basin of British Columbia

Charles L. Curry and Francis W. Zwiers

Data sets

VIC model gridded output and routed streamflow Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium Data Portal https://www.pacificclimate.org/data

Manual Snow Survey data BC River Forecast Centre https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/air-land-water/water/drought-flooding-dikes-dams/river-forecast-centre

Daily stream gauge measurements Water Survey of Canada https://wateroffice.ec.gc.ca/search/historical_e.html

Short summary

Key predictors of annual peak daily streamflow (APF) in the Fraser River Basin are investigated. While annual maximum snow amount is a robust predictor of APF, the role of other climatic factors in the largest historical floods is less well understood. Using observations and a process-based hydrological model as input to a multivariate regression approach, we show that the snowmelt rate, indices of large-scale climate variability, and spring warming rate also influence APF in the Fraser Basin.