Alejandro Flores, a professor of geosciences, recently gave the Weston Roundtable Lecture at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The lecture, “How Much Snow Falls in Mountain Watersheds and How Well Do We Know That Number?,” explained recent research advances by Flores’ LEAF research group at Boise State.
Flores spoke about work he supervised, by alum William Rudisill (Geophysics Ph.D., ’22) and graduate student Stanley Akor (Computing Ph.D., Fall ’25), examining the inner workings and innovations in regional climate models for predicting precipitation and snowfall in mountain watersheds. This work is motivated by the importance of mountain watersheds of the western U.S., like the headwaters of the Colorado and Columbia rivers, which supply water to millions of people in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
Precipitation in these watersheds is shifting from snow to rain over time. Understanding how well climate models predict these changes is essential for future planning.
The Weston Roundtable Lecture Series is made possible by a donation from Roy Weston to the University of Wisconsin. The lectures are intended to promote a robust understanding of sustainability science, engineering and policy. Co-sponsors include the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Office of Sustainability.