Hydrological response to warm and dry weather: do glacierscompensate?

Abstract. Warm and dry summer days can lead to low streamflow due to a lack of rainfall and increased evaporation. In glacierized catchments, however, such periods can lead to a very different hydrological response as glaciers can supply an increased amount of meltwater, thereby compensating for the rainfall deficits. Here, we analyzed glacier-fed streamflow responses to warm and dry periods (WD) in long-term streamflow observations (> 50 years). WD events during summer (June–September) were analyzed for catchments with varying glacier cover in Canada, Norway and the European Alps. WD events were defined by days with temperatures above a daily varying threshold, based on the 80th percentile of the respective long-term temperature data for that day in the year, and daily precipitation sums below a fixed threshold (