Potential impacts of climate warming on runoff from snowmelt: a case study of two mountainous basins in the Upper Rio Grande

Over the next century, climate change is expected to bring warmer temperatures and affect precipitation patterns in the Upper Rio Grande basin. We have been investigating how these changes may affect regional water supply [1]. There will be also impacts felt at the local scale which have significance for rural and urban communities alike. Here we present an analysis of climate change effects on surface water supply from melting annual snowpack for two small, mountainous sub-basins: El Rito and Santa Fe (Figure 1a