Choice of Downscaled Climate Product Matters: Projections of Valley Fever Seasonality in a Warming Climate

Downscaled climate projections provide valuable information needed to better understand the impacts of climate change on health outcomes and to inform adaptation and mitigation strategies at local to regional scales. Because downscaled climate products vary in their representations of fine-scale spatiotemporal patterns, due to of multiple interacting factors, epidemiologic analyses need to consider how differences across downscaling approaches impact projections of health impacts into the future. We evaluate the projected seasonality of coccidioidomycosis in response to projected temperature and precipitation estimated using global climate models from CMIP6 included in California's Fifth Climate Change Assessment, downscaled using two approaches: (a) dynamical downscaling using the Weather Research and Forecasting model; and (b) hybrid statistical downscaling using the Localized Constructed Analogs approach. Our results indicate that by end of century, coccidioidomycosis transmission is projected to start earlier, end later, and last longer across the California endemic region; however, the magnitude of these changes varies by downscaling method. Specifically, LOCA2-hybrid projected a season onset that is 4.2 weeks earlier and an end that is 4.1 weeks later than historical conditions, while the dynamical approach projected a 4 week earlier onset and a 3.8 week later end compared to the historical period. Overall, the LOCA2-hybrid product estimates that the transmission season will last about 0.3 weeks longer than what is projected using dynamical downscaling by end of century. This analysis highlights the sensitivity of coccidioidomycosis seasonality projections to choice of downscaling product, underscoring the need to account for these differences in mitigation and adaptation planning.