Rising Temperature not alone in Influencing Arizona’s Snowpack: Precipitation Variability & its Impact on Water Resources

Rising temperatures are widely regarded as the cause of declining snowpacks in the western United States. Variability in precipitation also poses risk to snowpacks but has not received attention in Arizona – where this research finds that variability in precipitation accounts for the majority of the decline in snowpack observed over the period 1981-2017. These findings are relevant in the Salt and Verde watersheds in central Arizona which provide approximately 40% of the water used in the Phoenix area annually, and may be used to better inform water management decisions in the area