Uncertainty in Precipitation and Water Projections in the Climate Change in Colorado Report

In collaboration with the State of Colorado and Denver Water, we have published an updated Climate Change in Colorado Report. The goal of the document is to communicate historic and future variability and trends in Colorado’s climate. While these reports have wide-ranging uses and broad applications across many sectors, the primary intended stakeholder has been water resource managers. The certainty in future temperature trends is high, but future trends in precipitation for Colorado remain uncertain. This often results in the assumption that there are no precipitation trends for Colorado. During the process, we considered several options for communicating and visualizing precipitation variability and trends. Here we present our communication efforts, through language in our reports and online data visualizations. We also share input from Denver Water as a key stakeholder.