scholarly journals Investigating the Effects of Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures on the Wind Drought of 2015 Over the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 123 (10) ◽  
pp. 4837-4849 ◽  
Author(s):  
Llorenç Lledó ◽  
Omar Bellprat ◽  
Francisco J. Doblas-Reyes ◽  
Albert Soret
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Sea Surface Temperatures ◽  
Surface Temperatures

The Relation of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) to Winter Tornado Outbreaks

2008 ◽  
Vol 136 (8) ◽  
pp. 3121-3137 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. Cook ◽  
J. T. Schaefer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Sea Surface Temperatures ◽  
Surface Temperatures ◽  
Tornado Outbreaks

Abstract Winter tornado activity (January–March) between 1950 and 2003 was analyzed to determine the possible effect of seasonally averaged sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, the ENSO phase, on the location and strength of tornado outbreaks in the United States. Tornado activity was gauged through analyses of tornadoes occurring on tornado days (a calendar day featuring six or more tornadoes within the contiguous United States) and strong and violent tornado days (a calendar day featuring five or more tornadoes rated F2 and greater within the contiguous United States). The tornado days were then stratified according to warm (37 tornado days, 14 violent days), cold (51 tornado days, 28 violent days), and neutral (74 tornado days, 44 violent days) winter ENSO phase. It is seen that during winter periods of neutral tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures, there is a tendency for U.S. tornado outbreaks to be stronger and more frequent than they are during winter periods of anomalously warm tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures (El Niño). During winter periods with anomalously cool Pacific sea surface temperatures (La Niña), the frequency and strength of U.S. tornado activity lies between that of the neutral and El Niño phase. ENSO-related shifts in the preferred location of tornado activity are also observed. Historically, during the neutral phase, tornado outbreaks typically occurred from central Oklahoma and Kansas eastward through the Carolinas. During cold phases, tornado outbreaks have typically occurred in a zone stretching from southeastern Texas northeastward into Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. During anomalously warm phases activity was mainly limited to the Gulf Coast states, including central Florida. The data are statistically and synoptically analyzed to show that they are not only statistically significant, but also meteorologically reasonable.

scholarly journals Variability Common to Global Sea Surface Temperatures and Runoff in the Conterminous United States

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 714-725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory J. McCabe ◽  
David M. Wolock
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Sea Surface Temperatures ◽  
Surface Temperatures ◽  
Svd Analysis ◽  
Runoff Variability ◽  
Value Decomposition ◽  
Variance Explained

Abstract Singular value decomposition (SVD) is used to identify the variability common to global sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and water-balance-modeled water-year (WY) runoff in the conterminous United States (CONUS) for the 1900–2012 period. Two modes were identified from the SVD analysis; the two modes explain 25% of the variability in WY runoff and 33% of the variability in WY SSTs. The first SVD mode reflects the variability of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the SST data and the hydroclimatic effects of ENSO on WY runoff in the CONUS. The second SVD mode is related to variability of the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO). An interesting aspect of these results is that both ENSO and AMO appear to have nearly equivalent effects on runoff variability in the CONUS. However, the relatively small amount of variance explained by the SVD analysis indicates that there is little covariation between runoff and SSTs, suggesting that SSTs may not be a viable predictor of runoff variability for most of the conterminous United States.

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