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Flooding, including inland and coastal flooding, is one of the most devastating and costly natural hazards in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Recent research conducted by an international team has focused on understanding the true and comprehensive economic costs of floods, with an eye toward addressing their impacts, allocating adequate resources for monitoring and preparedness, and building resilient communities. Flood-costing methods vary greatly among federal and subnational jurisdictions across the three North American countries. Because the rigor and consistency of existing datasets across the three countries vary significantly, it is also difficult to determine the economic impacts of cross-border events. This paper aims to critically analyze the research methods used to conduct this trinational project and develop recommendations for enhancing impacts of such work in the future. We discuss three major research barriers: gaps in knowledge and research capacity, differences in data collation and analysis methods across the three countries, and linguistic barriers in working across disciplines and economic sectors. We also explore how the COVID-19 pandemic significantly added to these three barriers. We propose creation of new institutional mechanisms that can play a major role in developing comprehensive, consistent, and cohesive data gathering approaches in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The MacKenzie Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Study, Phase 1, seeks to improve understanding of energy and water cycling in the Mackenzie River basin (MRB) and to initiate and test atmospheric, hydrologic, and coupled models that will project the sensitivity of these cycles to climate change and to human activities. Major findings from the study are outlined in this paper. Absorbed solar radiation is a primary driving force of energy and water, and shows dramatic temporal and spatial variability. Cloud amounts feature large diurnal, seasonal, and interannual fluctuations. Seasonality in moisture inputs and outputs is pronounced. Winter in the northern MRB features deep thermal inversions. Snow hydrological processes are very significant in this high-latitude environment and are being successfully modeled for various landscapes. Runoff processes are distinctive in the major terrain units, which is important to overall water cycling. Lakes and wetlands compose much of MRB and are prominent as hydrologic storage systems that must be incorporated into models. Additionally, they are very efficient and variable evaporating systems that are highly sensitive to climate variability. Mountainous high-latitude subbasins comprise a mosaic of land surfaces with distinct hydrological attributes that act as variable source areas for runoff generation. They also promote leeward cyclonic storm generation. The hard rock terrain of the Canadian Shield exhibits a distinctive energy flux regimen and hydrologic regime. The MRB has been warming dramatically recently, and ice breakup and spring outflow into the Polar Sea has been occurring progressively earlier. This paper presents initial results from coupled atmospheric–hydrologic modeling and delineates distinctive cold region inputs needed for developments in regional and global climate modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formula used in the U.S. and Canada to express the combined effect of wind and low temperature on how cold it feels was changed in November 2001. Many had felt that the old formula for equivalent temperature, derived in the 1960s from Siple and Passel's flawed but quite useful Wind Chill Index, unnecessarily exaggerated the severity of the weather. The new formula is based on a mathematical model of heat flow from the upwind side of a head-sized cylinder moving at walking speed into the wind. The paper details the assumptions that were made in generating the new wind chill charts. It also points out weaknesses in the concept of wind chill equivalent temperature, including its steady-state character and a seemingly paradoxical effect of the internal thermal resistance of the cylinder on comfort and equivalent temperature. Some improvements and alternatives are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dynamic model of facial cooling was developed in conjunction with the release of the new wind chill temperature (WCT) index, whereby the WCT provides wind chill estimates based on steady-state considerations and the dynamic model can be used to predict the rate of facial cooling and particularly the onset of freezing. In the present study, the dynamic model is applied to various combinations of air temperature and wind speed, and predictions of the resultant steady-state cheek skin temperatures are tabulated. Superimposed on these tables are times to a cheek skin temperature of 10°C, which has been reported as painful, and times to freezing. For combinations of air temperature and wind speed that result in the same final steady-state cheek temperature or the same WCT, the initial rate of change of skin temperature is higher for those combinations having higher wind speeds. This suggests that during short exposures, high winds combined with low temperatures might be perceived as more stressful than light winds with lower temperatures that result in the same “wind chill.” This paper also discloses the paradox that individuals having a low cheek thermal resistance are predicted to experience a more severe WCT, but be at less risk of cooling injury than individuals with higher thermal resistances. The advantages of cooling-time predictions using the dynamic model are discussed with the recommendation/conclusion that safe exposure limits are more meaningful and less ambiguous than the reporting of the WCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]