Regional climate scenarios for water resources research and impact assessment

Regional climate modeling offers a physically consistent method of evaluating the impacts of global climate change on scales of relevance to water resource issues. We present simulations of extreme precipitation periods for the central US and conclude that regional climate models are capable of reproducing the mass, wind fields, and moisture movement critical for generating precipitation. The region being studied has a complex combination of dynamical and thermodynamical processes that lead to extreme precipitation events. The model successfully captures these processes, although some discrepancies in the timing and magnitude lend to precipitation fields that are close but not exact matches of observed patterns.