How the Great Plains Dust Bowl drought spread heat extremes around the Northern Hemisphere

Journal Article · 17 October 2022 · Scientific Reports

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22262-5 · OSTI ID:1893233

Meehl, Gerald A.; Teng, Haiyan; Rosenbloom, Nan; Hu, Aixue; Tebaldi, Claudia; Walton, Guy

Abstract Extraordinary heat extremes occurred in the 1930s in areas of the Northern Hemisphere far from the record setting heat over the US associated with the Great Plains Dust Bowl drought. A climate model sensitivity experiment is used to identify a new mechanism involving a warm season circumglobal atmospheric teleconnection pattern that spread heat extremes over far-flung areas of the Northern Hemisphere arising from the intense heating over the desiccated Great Plains themselves. It has only been in the twenty-first century that human populations in these regions of the Northern Hemisphere have experienced heat extremes comparable to the 1930s. This demonstrates that humans influenced Northern Hemisphere temperature and heat extremes through disastrous and unprecedented regional land use practices over the Great Plains, and points to the possibility that future intense regional droughts could affect heat extremes on hemispheric scales.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830; SC0022070
• OSTI ID: 1893233
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-177248; 17380; PII: 22262
• Journal Information: Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 12; ISSN 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United Kingdom
• Language: English