Abstract

Predicting winter flooding is critical to protecting people and securing water resources in California’s Sierra Nevada. Rain rain are associated with the largest observed streamflows. A multiple linear regression analysis of scenario events suggests that TWI is sensi-tive to interactions between snow density and cold content, with denser (>0.30 g cm23 ) and colder (<20.3 MJ of cold con-tent) snowpacks retaining >50 mm of TWI. These results highlight the importance of hydraulic limitations in dense snowpacks and energy limitations in warm snowpacks for retaining liquid water that would otherwise be available as TWI for flooding.