scholarly journals Benchmarking the performance of pairwise homogenization of surface temperatures in the United States

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Menne ◽  
C. N. Williams ◽  
P. W. Thorne
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Surface Temperatures

scholarly journals Benchmarking the performance of pairwise homogenization of surface temperatures in the United States

2012 ◽  
Vol 117 (D5) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude N. Williams ◽  
Matthew J. Menne ◽  
Peter W. Thorne
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Surface Temperatures

scholarly journals Regional Thermodynamic Characteristics Distinguishing Long- and Short-Duration Freezing Rain Events over North America

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 657-671
Author(s):  
Christopher D. McCray ◽  
John R. Gyakum ◽  
Eyad H. Atallah
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Short Duration ◽  
Thermodynamic Characteristics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Freezing Rain ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Cold Air ◽  
South Central ◽  
Surface Temperatures ◽  
Rain Events

Abstract Freezing rain is an especially hazardous winter weather phenomenon that remains particularly challenging to forecast. Here, we identify the salient thermodynamic characteristics distinguishing long-duration (six or more hours) freezing rain events from short-duration (2–4 h) events in three regions of the United States and Canada from 1979 to 2016. In the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, strong surface cold-air advection is not common during freezing rain events. Colder onset temperatures at the surface and in the near-surface cold layer support longer-duration events there, allowing heating mechanisms (e.g., the release of latent heat of fusion when rain freezes at the surface) to act for longer periods before the surface reaches 0°C and precipitation transitions to rain. In the south-central United States, cold air at the surface is replenished via continuous cold-air advection, reducing the necessity of cold onset surface temperatures for event persistence. Instead, longer-duration events are associated with warmer and deeper >0°C warm layers aloft and stronger advection of warm and moist air into this layer, delaying its erosion via cooling mechanisms such as melting. Finally, in the southeastern United States, colder and especially drier onset conditions in the cold layer are associated with longer-duration events, with evaporative cooling crucial to maintaining the subfreezing surface temperatures necessary for freezing rain. Through an improved understanding of the regional conditions supporting freezing rain event persistence, we hope to provide useful information to forecasters in their attempt to predict these potentially damaging events.

scholarly journals The Effects of Historical Housing Policies on Resident Exposure to Intra-Urban Heat: A Study of 108 US Urban Areas

Climate ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy S. Hoffman ◽  
Vivek Shandas ◽  
Nicholas Pendleton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Housing Policies ◽  
Surface Temperatures ◽  
Land Surface Temperatures ◽  
Urban Heat

The increasing intensity, duration, and frequency of heat waves due to human-caused climate change puts historically underserved populations in a heightened state of precarity, as studies observe that vulnerable communities—especially those within urban areas in the United States—are disproportionately exposed to extreme heat. Lacking, however, are insights into fundamental questions about the role of historical housing policies in cauterizing current exposure to climate inequities like intra-urban heat. Here, we explore the relationship between “redlining”, or the historical practice of refusing home loans or insurance to whole neighborhoods based on a racially motivated perception of safety for investment, with present-day summertime intra-urban land surface temperature anomalies. Through a spatial analysis of 108 urban areas in the United States, we ask two questions: (1) how do historically redlined neighborhoods relate to current patterns of intra-urban heat? and (2) do these patterns vary by US Census Bureau region? Our results reveal that 94% of studied areas display consistent city-scale patterns of elevated land surface temperatures in formerly redlined areas relative to their non-redlined neighbors by as much as 7 °C. Regionally, Southeast and Western cities display the greatest differences while Midwest cities display the least. Nationally, land surface temperatures in redlined areas are approximately 2.6 °C warmer than in non-redlined areas. While these trends are partly attributable to the relative preponderance of impervious land cover to tree canopy in these areas, which we also examine, other factors may also be driving these differences. This study reveals that historical housing policies may, in fact, be directly responsible for disproportionate exposure to current heat events.

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.

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