Abstract
A 31 year record (1984–2014) of glacier mass balance and areal extent indicate a significant glacier response to climate change in the North Cascades of Washington state. Glacier runoff is a major source of streamflow during the summer low-flow season and mitigates both low flow and high water temperatures. Measurement of ablation and discharge immediately below Sholes Glacier quantifies the volume of glacier runoff to the North Fork Nooksack River, which provided more than 40 % of total river runoff for 21 days in August and September, 2014, peaking at 80 % of total flow on Sept. 15th. The ameliorating role of glacier runoff on discharge and water temperature has been observed during 12 late summer warm weather events from 2009 to 2013 in the Nooksack Basin. The primary response to these events is increased discharge in the heavily glaciated North Fork, and increased stream temperature in the unglaciated South Fork. During the 12 warm weather events a +15 % increase in discharge was observed during 11 events in the North Fork, and zero in the South Fork. For water temperature all 12 events caused a 2 °C rise in water temperature in the South Fork, but just two events caused this rise in the North Fork.
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Pelto, M. (2015). Alpine and Glacier Runoff. In: Climate Driven Retreat of Mount Baker Glaciers and Changing Water Resources. SpringerBriefs in Climate Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22605-7_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22605-7_4
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