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Title: Causes of Extreme Ridges That Induce California Droughts

Abstract

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.

Authors:
 [1];  [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1524069
Grant/Contract Number:  
FC02-97ER62402; AC02-05CH11231
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Climate
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 30; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 0894-8755
Publisher:
American Meteorological Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Atmospheric circulation; Diabatic heating; Pacific-North American pattern/oscillation; Climate variability; Interannual variability

Citation Formats

Teng, Haiyan, and Branstator, Grant. Causes of Extreme Ridges That Induce California Droughts. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0524.1.
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Teng, Haiyan, & Branstator, Grant. Causes of Extreme Ridges That Induce California Droughts. United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0524.1
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Teng, Haiyan, and Branstator, Grant. Wed . "Causes of Extreme Ridges That Induce California Droughts". United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0524.1. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1524069.
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@article{osti_1524069,
title = {Causes of Extreme Ridges That Induce California Droughts},
author = {Teng, Haiyan and Branstator, Grant},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0524.1},
journal = {Journal of Climate},
number = 4,
volume = 30,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Feb 08 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Wed Feb 08 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}
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Journal Article:
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Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0524.1
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Cited by: 59 works
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: Seasonal mean $z$200 (contours at ±20, 40, and 60m), precipitation (shading; mm day -1), and SST (dots; °C) anomalies in DJF of (a) 2013/14 and (b) 2014/15 relative to the 1979–2015 climatology.
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Works referenced in this record:

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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Quasi‐stationary waves and their impact on European weather and extreme events
    journal, October 2018

    • Wolf, Gabriel; Brayshaw, David J.; Klingaman, Nicholas P.
    • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 144, Issue 717
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    Identifying Sustained Drought Anomalies in Hydrological Records: A Wavelet Approach
    journal, July 2018

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    • Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
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    A new interhemispheric teleconnection increases predictability of winter precipitation in southwestern US
    journal, June 2018

    Ocean‐Atmosphere Trajectories of Extended Drought in Southwestern North America
    journal, August 2019

    • Parsons, Luke A.; Coats, Sloan
    • Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 124, Issue 16
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    Metrics for understanding large-scale controls of multivariate temperature and precipitation variability
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    • Climate Dynamics, Vol. 53, Issue 7-8
    • DOI: 10.1007/s00382-019-04749-6

    California from drought to deluge
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    Tracking Groundwater Levels using the Ambient Seismic Field
    text, January 2018

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      Figures / Tables found in this record:

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      FIG. 12 (p. 14)figure
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