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Causes of Extreme Ridges That Induce California Droughts

Journal Article · · Journal of Climate
 [1];  [1]
  1. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
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California droughts are often caused by high-amplitude and persistent ridges near and off the west coast of North America without apparent connections with ENSO. Here with a hierarchy of climate models, it is demonstrated that extreme ridges in this region are associated with a continuum of zonal wavenumber-5 circumglobal teleconnection patterns that originate from midlatitude atmospheric internal dynamics. Although tropical diabatic heating anomalies are not essential to the formation and maintenance of these wave patterns, certain persistent heating anomalies may double the probability of ridges with amplitudes in the 90th percentile occurring on interannual time scales. Those heating anomalies can be caused by either natural variability or possibly by climate change, and they do not necessarily depend on ENSO. The extreme ridges that occurred during the 2013/14 and 2014/15 winters could be examples of ridges produced by heating anomalies that are not associated with ENSO. As a result, this mechanism could provide a source of subseasonal-to-interannual predictability beyond the predictability provided by ENSO.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; FC02-97ER62402
OSTI ID:
1524069
Journal Information:
Journal of Climate, Journal Name: Journal of Climate Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 30; ISSN 0894-8755
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (14)

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Quasi‐stationary waves and their impact on European weather and extreme events
  • Wolf, Gabriel; Brayshaw, David J.; Klingaman, Nicholas P.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 144, Issue 717 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3310
journal October 2018
Metrics for understanding large-scale controls of multivariate temperature and precipitation variability journal April 2019
California's Drought of the Future: A Midcentury Recreation of the Exceptional Conditions of 2012–2017 journal November 2018
Tracking Groundwater Levels Using the Ambient Seismic Field journal July 2018
Attributing the U.S. Southwest's Recent Shift Into Drier Conditions journal June 2018
Global Search for Autumn‐Lead Sea Surface Salinity Predictors of Winter Precipitation in Southwestern United States journal August 2018
Identifying Sustained Drought Anomalies in Hydrological Records: A Wavelet Approach journal July 2018
Balancing Flood Risk and Water Supply in California: Policy Search Integrating Short‐Term Forecast Ensembles With Conjunctive Use journal October 2018
Ocean‐Atmosphere Trajectories of Extended Drought in Southwestern North America journal August 2019
California from drought to deluge journal June 2017
A new interhemispheric teleconnection increases predictability of winter precipitation in southwestern US journal June 2018
Increasing precipitation volatility in twenty-first-century California journal April 2018
Tracking Groundwater Levels using the Ambient Seismic Field text January 2018

Figures / Tables (12)

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FIG. 12(p. 14)figure FIG. 12

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Atmospheric circulation
Climate variability
Diabatic heating
Interannual variability
Pacific-North American pattern/oscillation