Elsevier

Journal of Hydrology

Volume 316, Issues 1–4, 10 January 2006, Pages 53-70
Journal of Hydrology

Hydroclimatology of the North American Monsoon region in northwest Mexico

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2005.04.021Get rights and content

Abstract

The North American Monsoon (NAM) system controls the warm season climate over much of southwestern North America. In this semi-arid environment, understanding the regional behavior of the hydroclimatology and its associated modes of variability is critically important to effectively predicting and managing perpetually stressed regional water resources. Equally as important is understanding the relationships through which warm season precipitation is converted into streamflow. This work explores the hydroclimatology of northwestern Mexico, i.e. the core region of the NAM, by (a) presenting a thorough review of recent hydroclimatic investigations from the region and (b) developing a detailed hydroclimatology of 15, unregulated, headwater basins along the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in western Mexico. The present work is distinct from previous studies as it focuses on the intra-seasonal evolution of rainfall-runoff relationships, and contrasts the sub-regional behavior of the rainfall-runoff response. It is found that there is substantial sub-regional coherence in the hydrological response to monsoon precipitation. Three physically plausible regions emerge from a rotated Principal Components Analysis of streamflow and basin-averaged precipitation. Month-to-month streamflow persistence, rainfall-runoff correlation scores and runoff coefficient values demonstrate regional coherence and are generally consistent with what is currently known about sub-regional aspects of NAM precipitation character.

Introduction

An increasing body of literature is documenting salient features of the North American warm-season circulation and precipitation regime over the region of northwestern Mexico that is the core of the North American Monsoon System (NAMS). The region is generally semi-arid, with an annual precipitation regime dominated by warm-season convection that strongly interacts with the regional topography and surrounding bodies of seawater (For a complete discussion of the NAMS, please refer to the North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME) Science Plan (NAME Science Working Group, 2004) or Higgins et al., 2003). The circulation features responsible for this warm-season precipitation regime have been well documented (Higgins et al., 1997, Higgins et al., 1998, Higgins et al., 1999, Higgins and Shi, 2000, Carleton et al., 1990, Douglas et al., 1993, Schmitz and Mullen, 1996, Castro et al., 2001, Hu and Feng, 2002). Such studies consistently document a transition in the regional climate from an arid subtropical regime dominated by westerly flow at middle and upper levels, to a regime with substantially higher relative humidity, easterly flow at mid and upper levels, and strong diurnal convection. This transition occurs during June and early July and is designated as the ‘onset’ of the summer monsoon. The monsoon circulation, its onset, precipitation character, and the hydrological response to it, exhibit considerable spatial and temporal variability. This variability complicates diagnostic and predictive efforts and limits responsive management of regional water resources. This work explores the complex relationship between precipitation and streamflow in the NAM region by: (a) reviewing recent works that have examined precipitation and streamflow variability and (b) constructing a regional hydroclimatology from selected headwater catchments in northwest Mexico.

Section snippets

Overview of the North American Monsoon precipitation regime

The internal structure of NAM precipitation is complex and subject to considerable spatial and temporal variability. The centroid of NAM precipitation, which is often defined as the total rainfall in July, August, and September (JAS), is located along the western slope of the Sierra Madre Occidental (SMO) in northwestern Mexico (Douglas et al., 1993, Higgins et al., 1999, Gochis et al., 2004). In this region, the coefficient of variation of precipitation is high in the global context (Dettinger

Data

Selected basins, pertinent basin characteristics and streamgauge locations are shown in Fig. 1 and listed in Table 1. Monthly streamflow data were obtained from the BANDAS (Banco Nacional de Datos de Aguas Superficiales) data archive, BANDAS (1998). This data set is jointly developed by the Comision Nacional del Agua (CNA) and the Instituto Mexicano de Tecnologia del Agua (IMTA) of Mexico, and is continually updated. Streamflow periods of record vary for individual basins, but all basins

Streamflow climatology

The annual cycle of standardized monthly average flow volumes, monthly coefficients of variation and standardized monthly maximum flow volumes are shown in Fig. 2. Depending on the basin, 50–85% of the annual streamflow volume occurs during the months of July, August and September. Monthly streamflow volumes begin increasing in July and peak in either August or September. Notably, basins on the eastern slope of the SMO (shown in green) exhibit higher monthly percentages of annual streamflow

Summary and conclusions

This study presents a regional hydroclimatology of 15 headwater catchments that drain the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in northwest Mexico. The basins range in size from 1000 to 10,000 km2 and are unregulated to the best of the authors' knowledge. Hence, this analysis is aimed at elucidating the natural streamflow response of headwater catchments from the annual cycle of precipitation in northwest Mexico, which is generally dominated by a warm-season monsoon. This study fills a niche in

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Subrhendu Gangopadhyay for his insightful advice on interpreting the principal components analysis, the Comision Nacional del Agua of Mexico for collecting and providing the streamflow data used in this work, to Dr Tom Warner for his helpful review of this article and to two anonymous reviewers whose generous feedback greatly improved the quality and clarity of this work. Support for this work is provided by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, NOAA Office of

References (47)

  • L. Descroix et al.

    Evaluation of an antecedent precipitation index to model runoff yield in the western sierra madre (Northwest Mexico)

    J. Hydrol.

    (2002)
  • L. Descroix et al.

    An experimental analysis of hydrodynamic behavior on soil and hillslopes in a subtropical mountainous environment (western Sierra Madre, Mexico)

    J. Hydrol.

    (2002)
  • B.T. Anderson et al.

    Regional similation of the low-level winds over the ulf of California and southwestern United States

    J. Geophys. Res.

    (2000)
  • BANDAS, 1998. Bancos Nacional de Datos de Aguas Superficiales, Comission Nacional del Agua (CNA) y Instituto Mexicano...
  • E.H. Berbery

    Mesoscale moisture analysis of the North American Monsoon

    J. Climate

    (2001)
  • L. Brito-Castillo et al.

    Determination of decadal climatic cycle in runoff fluctuation of a hydrologic unit

    Atmosfera

    (1999)
  • L. Brito-Castillo et al.

    Pacific-decadal oscillation and the filled capacity of dams on the rivers of the gulf of California continental watershed

    Atmosfera

    (2002)
  • L. Brito-Castillo et al.

    The effect of large-scale circulation on precipitation and streamflow in the gulf of California continental watershed

    Int. J. Climatology

    (2003)
  • A.M. Carleton et al.

    Mechanisms of interannual variability of the southwest United States summer rainfall maximum

    J. Climate

    (1990)
  • C.L. Castro et al.

    The relationship of the North American monsoon to tropical and North Pacific sea surface temperatures as revealed by observations analyses

    J. Climate

    (2001)
  • A.C. Comrie et al.

    Principal components-based regionalization of precipitation regimes across the southwest United States and northern Mexico, with an application to monsoon precipitation variability

    Climate Res.

    (1998)
  • G.P. Cressman

    An operational objective analysis system

    Mon. Wea. Rev.

    (1959)
  • M.D. Dettinger et al.

    Global characteristics of streamflow seasonality and variability

    J. Hydromet.

    (2000)
  • Douglas, A.V., 2000. The influence of eastern North Pacific tropical storms on summer rainfall in Mexico, Second...
  • M. Douglas et al.

    The Mexican monsoon

    J. Climate

    (1993)
  • P.J. Englehart et al.

    The role of eastern North Pacific tropical storms in the rainfall climatology of western Mexico

    Int. J. Climatology

    (2001)
  • P.J. Englehart et al.

    Mexico's summer rainfall patterns: an analysis of regional modes and changes in their teleconnectivity

    Atmosfera

    (2002)
  • ESRI, 2003. ArcMap Version 8.2. Environmental Systems Research Institute,...
  • P.J. Fawcett et al.

    Multistage moisture transport into the interior of northern Mexico during the North American summer monsoon

    Geophys. Res. Lett.

    (2002)
  • R.D. Fuller et al.

    The relationship between tropical easterly waves and surges over the gulf of California during the North American monsoon

    Mon. Wea. Rev.

    (2000)
  • D.J. Gochis et al.

    The hydrometeorological response of the modeled North American monsoon to convective parameterization

    J. Hydromet.

    (2003)
  • D.J. Gochis et al.

    Preliminary diagnostics from an event based precipitation observation network in support of the North American monsoon experiment (NAME)

    J. Hydromet.

    (2003)
  • D.J. Gochis et al.

    Analyses of 2002 and 2003 North American monsoon precipitation form the NAME event raingauge network (NERN)

    Mon. Wea. Rev.

    (2004)
  • Cited by (0)

    1

    The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

    View full text