By Sierra Rayne ——Bio and Archives--August 5, 2014
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"Idaho is drying out. Charlie Luce, a hydrologist with the Forest Service, says the Gem State is using more water, but seeing less in the aquifers. There's 20 percent less water coming into our basins, when compared to the 1940s."
"That's not what the NOAA National Climatic Data Center database shows. There has been no significant trend in annual precipitation for the state since records began in 1895, and -- wait for it -- the correlation is actually positive, toward more annual precipitation, not less, over the past 120 years. Same goes for summertime precipitation in the Gem State -- no significant trend, but an increasing -- not decreasing -- correlation. The Palmer Drought Severity Index for Idaho exhibits no sign of a significant trend since 1895 for the summertime, annual, 24-month, 36-month, 48-month, or 60-month drought indices. There is almost a perfect non-correlation with the drought index over time. In other words, there is absolutely no sign that 'Idaho is drying out.' I looked at all 217 hydrometric stations in the USGS database for streamflow in Idaho. Not a single station exhibits a significant declining trend in annual streamflow since 1940. There is no scientific evidence linking anthropogenic climate change to the wildfires in this region, and there is no evidence I can find that Idaho is drying out due to anthropogenic climate change."
"The amount of water that falls in the Boise River watershed has declined by about 20 percent since the 1940s, he said. The burning of 50 percent of the forest canopy in the past 20 years means fewer trees store the water that does fall, increasing runoff by 5 percent." According to the USGS database for streamflow in Idaho, there are the following seven hydrometric stations on the Boise River. For the three stations with records dating back to the 1940s, there are no significant trends in streamflow. Furthermore, over the past 20 years, the runoff in the watershed also exhibits no significant trends. Indeed, the correlations over the last two decades are negative, not positive towards "increasing runoff by 5 percent."
Overall, the streamflow data in Idaho does not appear to match the claims being made in the media.
In addition, according to the NOAA National Weather Service database, there has been no significant trend in annual precipitation since 1940 for the Boise region (nor the Pocatello area). The NOAA National Climate Data Center database shows no sign of significant trends in annual precipitation within any of Idaho's ten climate divisions since 1940.
It still seems that the claims made in the Idaho media regarding climate change are not matching up with the standard scientific datasets.Support Canada Free Press
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Sierra Rayne holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry and writes regularly on environment, energy, and national security topics. He can be found on Twitter at @srayne_ca