Impacts of Global Warming of 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0 °C on Hydrologic Regimes in the Northeastern U.S.

Regional climate change impacts show a wide range of variations under different levels global warming. Watersheds in the northeastern region United States (NEUS) are projected to undergo most severe from forms extreme precipitation events, floods and drought, sea level rise, etc. As such, there is high possibility that hydrologic regimes NEUS may be altered future, which can absolutely devastating for managing water resources ecological balance across watersheds. In this study, we present comprehensive impact analysis using indicators selected watersheds thresholds temperature increases (1.5, 2.0 3.0 °C). Precipitation projections fourteen downscaled Global Circulation Models (GCMs) representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5 greenhouse gas used as inputs into distributed hydrological model obtain future streamflow conditions. Overall, results indicate majority will enter wetter regime, particularly during months winter, while flow conditions late summer fall dry all three increase. The estimation time emergence new large uncertainties 1.5 °C increases; however, GCM strong consensus appear