Spatial and temporal patterns in conterminous United States streamflow characteristics

Geophysical Research Letters
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Abstract

Spatial and temporal patterns in annual and seasonal minimum, mean, and maximum daily streamflow values were examined for a set of 516 reference stream gauges located throughout the conterminous United States for the period 1951–2009. Cluster analysis was used to classify the stream gauges into 14 groups based on similarity in their temporal patterns of streamflow. The results indicated that the temporal patterns in flow metrics (1) have strong spatial coherence within each region, (2) are similar among the three annual flow metrics and the four seasonal flow metrics within each region, (3) indicate some small magnitude trends over time, and (4) are only weakly associated with well-known climate indices. We conclude that most of the temporal variability in flow is unpredictable in terms of relations to climate indices and infer that, for the most part, future changes in flow characteristics cannot be predicted by these indices.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Spatial and temporal patterns in conterminous United States streamflow characteristics
Series title Geophysical Research Letters
DOI 10.1002/2014GL061980
Volume 41
Issue 19
Year Published 2014
Language English
Publisher American Geophysical Union
Contributing office(s) National Research Program - Central Branch
Description 9 p.
First page 6889
Last page 6897
Country United States
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