watervulnerability

White River National Forest Watershed Vulnerability Assessment, Rocky Mountain Region (R2)
Figure 2. Possible air temperature changes predicted from down-scaled global circulation models for the Colorado
River basin (Christensen and Lettenmaier 2006)
Figure 3 shows predicted changes in precipitation relative to the long-term historical record. Given the
variability of the predictions, no consistent trend in annual precipitation is evident. However, other
research has shown that shifts in the type of precipitation (primarily snow to rain) and shifts in the
seasonal distribution are likely (Ray et al. 2008).
116 Assessing the Vulnerability of Watersheds to Climate Change