Use of the North American Regional Reanalysis for Hydrological Modelling in Manitoba

This study investigates the applicability of temperature and precipitation data from the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) for hydrological modelling of selected watersheds in northern Manitoba. For the specific region, it is found that NARR temperature and precipitation data are in much better agreement with observations than a popular global reanalysis data set. The hydrological model SLURP (Semi-distributed Land Use-based Runoff Processes) was set up and calibrated for three catchments (Burntwood, Taylor and Sapochi), using meteorological data from weather stations. When the calibrated models were run with temperature and precipitation data from NARR, runoff was underestimated by approximately 20%. The SLURP model was then recalibrated using the NARR temperature and precipitation data as input. This eliminated much of the bias and provided a goodness-of-fit that was only slightly inferior to simulations with observed weather data. This suggests that SLURP can be adequately calibrated with NARR data and used for modelling hydrological processes in northern Manitoba where weather stations are scarce.