Implications of 21st Century Climate Change for the Hydrology of Washington State

This report is part 1 of Chapter 3 of the Washington Climate Change Impacts Assessment (see separate entry), focusing on water resource impacts for the state. Parts 2 and 3 of this chapter focus on the Puget Sound and the Yakima River Basin respectively. Based on results from 39 global simulations performed for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR4) projections, this report presents downscaled model findings and the implications on the hydrology of the Pacific Northwest. This paper uses results from 20 global climate models (GCMs) and two emissions scenarios from the Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES). Specifically, this report presents implications of climate change on snow water, soil moisture, runoff, streamflow, Puget Sound catchments, and Yakima watershed. Chapter 9 discusses Stormwater infrastructure.