Hydroclimate drivers and atmospheric teleconnections of long duration floods: An application to large reservoirs in the Missouri River Basin

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Photo by Chris Gallagher on Unsplash

Photo by Chris Gallagher on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study revolutionizes how future flood analysis should be conducted in a comprehensive framework that assesses the flood types, their spatiotemporal characteristics and causes based on the rainfall statistics, antecedent flow conditions, and atmospheric teleconnections. This is an interdisciplinary study that reforms flood risk assessment using regional climate information and atmospheric teleconnections, using a set of statistical tools and models. This is the first study that was able to predict the regional flood duration using extracted signals from land-air interactions, from antecedent moisture content to the synoptic atmospheric circulation patterns. This study shows that static operational planning based on the instantaneous peak flow needs to be replaced by a full profile of flood characteristics.