Impacts of the North Atlantic Oscillation on winter precipitations and storm track variability in southeast Canada and the northeast United States
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) affects atmospheric variability from eastern North America to Europe. Although the link between the NAO and winter precipitations in eastern North America has been the focus of previous work, only few studies have considered extreme precipitation and hitherto pro...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:cf9294f2faf549ee92f9ee3acb2a2792 2023-05-15T17:31:35+02:00 Impacts of the North Atlantic Oscillation on winter precipitations and storm track variability in southeast Canada and the northeast United States J. Chartrand F. S. R. Pausata 2020-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-731-2020 https://doaj.org/article/cf9294f2faf549ee92f9ee3acb2a2792 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://wcd.copernicus.org/articles/1/731/2020/wcd-1-731-2020.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/2698-4016 doi:10.5194/wcd-1-731-2020 2698-4016 https://doaj.org/article/cf9294f2faf549ee92f9ee3acb2a2792 Weather and Climate Dynamics, Vol 1, Pp 731-744 (2020) Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-731-2020 2022-12-31T06:48:24Z The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) affects atmospheric variability from eastern North America to Europe. Although the link between the NAO and winter precipitations in eastern North America has been the focus of previous work, only few studies have considered extreme precipitation and hitherto provided clear physical explanations on these relationships. In this study we revisit and extend the analysis of the effect of the NAO on mean and heavy winter precipitations over a large domain covering southeast Canada and the northeastern United States. Furthermore, we use the recent ERA5 reanalysis dataset (1979–2018), which currently has the highest available horizontal resolution for a global reanalysis (0.25 ∘ ), to track extratropical cyclones to delve into the physical processes behind the relationship between NAO and precipitation, snowfall, snowfall-to-precipitation ratio ( S ∕ P ), and snow cover depth anomalies in the region. In particular, our results show that positive NAO phases are associated with less snowfall over a wide region covering Nova Scotia, New England and the Mid-Atlantic of the United States relative to negative NAO phases. Over the same area, the analysis of heavy snowfall revealed that there are up to twice as many heavy snowfall events during negative phases compared to positive phases. Therefore, a significant negative correlation is also seen between S ∕ P and the NAO over this region. This is due to a decrease (increase) in cyclogenesis of coastal storms near the United States east coast during positive (negative) NAO phases, as well as a northward (southward) displacement of the mean storm track over North America. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Canada Weather and Climate Dynamics 1 2 731 744 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
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Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 J. Chartrand F. S. R. Pausata Impacts of the North Atlantic Oscillation on winter precipitations and storm track variability in southeast Canada and the northeast United States |
topic_facet |
Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) affects atmospheric variability from eastern North America to Europe. Although the link between the NAO and winter precipitations in eastern North America has been the focus of previous work, only few studies have considered extreme precipitation and hitherto provided clear physical explanations on these relationships. In this study we revisit and extend the analysis of the effect of the NAO on mean and heavy winter precipitations over a large domain covering southeast Canada and the northeastern United States. Furthermore, we use the recent ERA5 reanalysis dataset (1979–2018), which currently has the highest available horizontal resolution for a global reanalysis (0.25 ∘ ), to track extratropical cyclones to delve into the physical processes behind the relationship between NAO and precipitation, snowfall, snowfall-to-precipitation ratio ( S ∕ P ), and snow cover depth anomalies in the region. In particular, our results show that positive NAO phases are associated with less snowfall over a wide region covering Nova Scotia, New England and the Mid-Atlantic of the United States relative to negative NAO phases. Over the same area, the analysis of heavy snowfall revealed that there are up to twice as many heavy snowfall events during negative phases compared to positive phases. Therefore, a significant negative correlation is also seen between S ∕ P and the NAO over this region. This is due to a decrease (increase) in cyclogenesis of coastal storms near the United States east coast during positive (negative) NAO phases, as well as a northward (southward) displacement of the mean storm track over North America. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
J. Chartrand F. S. R. Pausata |
author_facet |
J. Chartrand F. S. R. Pausata |
author_sort |
J. Chartrand |
title |
Impacts of the North Atlantic Oscillation on winter precipitations and storm track variability in southeast Canada and the northeast United States |
title_short |
Impacts of the North Atlantic Oscillation on winter precipitations and storm track variability in southeast Canada and the northeast United States |
title_full |
Impacts of the North Atlantic Oscillation on winter precipitations and storm track variability in southeast Canada and the northeast United States |
title_fullStr |
Impacts of the North Atlantic Oscillation on winter precipitations and storm track variability in southeast Canada and the northeast United States |
title_full_unstemmed |
Impacts of the North Atlantic Oscillation on winter precipitations and storm track variability in southeast Canada and the northeast United States |
title_sort |
impacts of the north atlantic oscillation on winter precipitations and storm track variability in southeast canada and the northeast united states |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-731-2020 https://doaj.org/article/cf9294f2faf549ee92f9ee3acb2a2792 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_source |
Weather and Climate Dynamics, Vol 1, Pp 731-744 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://wcd.copernicus.org/articles/1/731/2020/wcd-1-731-2020.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/2698-4016 doi:10.5194/wcd-1-731-2020 2698-4016 https://doaj.org/article/cf9294f2faf549ee92f9ee3acb2a2792 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-731-2020 |
container_title |
Weather and Climate Dynamics |
container_volume |
1 |
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2 |
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731 |
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744 |
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1766129232153411584 |