Broadcast — Cutting Edge Lectures in Science: How might global warming affect the variable hydroclimate of Western Canada?

Canada’s western interior has one of the world's most variable climates, with severe drought and torrential rainstorms experienced in recent years. The extreme climate events in this region have been some of the most costly natural disasters in Canada history.

Climate models suggest that this hydroclimatic variability could be amplified by global warming — presenting a more challenging future scenario than the projected shifts in average conditions. To appreciate how global warming might affect the variable hydroclimate of western Canada, we first must understand the internal (natural) short-term variability.

The long climate records indicate that western water policy and management practices were established during a period of intense, but not sustained drought, and that adjustments may be required to sustain land and water use under a hydrologic regime that has elements of previous regimes and global warming.

Featuring Professor David Sauchyn, University of Regina.