Development of Alternate Climate Divisions for Colorado Based on Gridded Data

Abstract

The official climate divisions for the contiguous United States are used for a wide range of purposes, including ongoing climate monitoring, and through NOAA’s long-standing nClimDiv dataset. In Colorado, the climate divisions are based around the basins of the large rivers that flow out of the state. However, considering the complex topography and climate of the state, these divisions do not always represent key climate variations and changes. This study builds upon an approach first developed by Wolter and Allured to establish alternate climate divisions that more closely reflect observed climate variability across Colorado. Hierarchical cluster analysis is applied to gridded temperature and precipitation data (NOAA’s nClimGrid) from 1950-2021 to identify areas with similar climate variability, then manual inspection is used to establish 11 divisions. These resulting divisions are being used in an updated state-level climate change assessment. The method is flexible and uses open-source tools that could be extended to other regions or datasets.