An Areal and Temporal Analysis of Precipitation in the Northeastern United States

Scott, Cynthia M.; Shulman, Mark D.

doi:10.1175/1520-0450(1979)018<0627:aaatao>2.0.co;2

Cited by 27 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Scott & Shulman (1979) applied this methodology to examine precipitation over the United States, whereas Finkelstein & Truppi (1991) applied it to temperature. The global distribution of the annual and semi-annual cycles of precipitation has been examined by Hsu & Wallace (1976), who studied global precipitation through harmonic analysis applied to climatological data, although considering only a few stations over SSA.…”

Section: Abstract: Precipitation · Seasonal Cycle · Decadal · Tempermentioning

confidence: 73%

Interdecadal changes in the precipitation seasonal cycle over Southern South America and their relationship with surface temperature

Rusticucci¹,

Penalba²

2000

Clim. Res.

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The decadal variability in the structure of the annual precipitation cycle over Southern South America (SSA) is analysed with the purpose of investigating whether the lower frequency variability laid bare by annual data is also evident in the annual precipitation structure. Climatic analysis shows that the annual cycle plus the semi-annual cycle dominate the annual variability of precipitation in SSA and represent most of the physical factors responsible for the observed patterns. The percentage of variance explained by the annual cycle shows 2 local maxima, in northwestern Argentina and southern Chile, with opposite phases, summer and winter. The interdecadal analysis of the annual cycle shows 2 areas of relevant variability: one over the central east and the other over the north east. In the first area, there is a positive trend in the variance explained by the first harmonic, indicating that precipitation tends to be better represented by an annual cycle, a fact that might indicate a climatic change in so far as this variable is concerned. In view of global warming, and as a first step towards quantifying the relationship between temperature and precipitation in the region, correlation coefficients are evaluated. The correlation structure of the warmer period 1943-52 generally shows a slight correlation pattern when compared to the 2 colder periods, 1955-64 and 1966-75. In northwestern Argentina, the highest positive correlation coefficients are found at the coldest times in 1955-64, and are probably related to an increase in cloudiness. During summer months (November to February), there is an inverse relationship between precipitation and temperature over most of SSA. That is, warmer/colder summers are associated with precipitation below/above the mean. In autumn and spring months, the correlation is positive in the eastern part of Argentina and Paraguay, and represents well the mechanism of maximum precipitation in this area, which is mainly the result of cyclogenesis. Winter correlation shows a weak positive pattern over SSA and a negative correlation area to the east of the Cordillera de los Andes, which is more intense in spring. KEY WORDS: Precipitation · Seasonal cycle · Decadal · Temperature · Southern South AmericaResale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisher Clim Res 16: 1-15, 2000 circulation. More recently, Chen & Yen (1997) concluded that interdecadal changes in the southern hemisphere circulation may exhibit different spatial structures during different seasons, with major interdecadal variations occurring in mid and high latitudes. The relevance of interdecadal variation is such that in a paper by Cayan et al. (1998), for example, the authors concluded that decadal variations of precipitation over western North America account for 20 to 50% of the variance in annual precipitation.Concerning the precipitation regime over Argentina and its variability, the first work on seasonal precipitation regimes was Prohaska's (1952) paper. In that study, regions...

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Section: Abstract: Precipitation · Seasonal Cycle · Decadal · Tempermentioning

confidence: 73%

Interdecadal changes in the precipitation seasonal cycle over Southern South America and their relationship with surface temperature

Rusticucci¹,

Penalba²

2000

Clim. Res.

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“…Harmonic analysis, is often applied to streamflow (Quimpo and Yang, 1970;Chiew and McMahon, 2002) and groundwater (Zhou, 1996;Kim et al, 2007) time series. It has also been used for areal and temporal analysis of rainfall (Scott and Shulman, 1979), and studies of seasonal variation of rainfall (Kirkyla and Hameed, 1989) and rainfall climatology (Kadioglu et al, 1999;Vines, 2007). Periodic characteristics of rainfall time 5477 series can be modelled by a harmonic series (Bloomfield, 1976), i.e.…”

Section: Harmonic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Variability of rainfall in Peninsular Malaysia

Wong

Venneker

Uhlenbrook

et al. 2009

Preprint

141

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Abstract. This study analyzed and quantified the spatial patterns and time-variability of rainfall in Peninsular Malaysia on monthly, yearly and monsoon temporal scales. We first obtained an overview of rainfall patterns through the analysis of 16 point data sources. The results led to choosing three distinct regions, i.e.~the east coast, inland and west coast regions. For detailed analysis, Shepard's interpolation scheme was applied to the station data to produce daily rainfall fields on a 0.05 degree resolution grids for the period 1971–2006. The rainfall characteristics in time and space derived from a frequency analysis were found to be distinctly different in these three regions. In the east coast region, monthly rainfall shows a significant periodicity dominated by an annual cycle, followed by a half-year cycle. The inland and west coast regions show that the dominant periodic fluctuations in the monthly rainfall are dominated by a half-year cycle, followed by an annual cycle. The long-term rainfall variability analysis shows that the dry and wet conditions in Peninsular Malaysia are not primarily governed by the ENSO events. The results from the individual regions suggest that although the relative variability is influenced by ENSO, local and regional conditions have an effect on the interannual rainfall variability, which is superimposed on the large-scale weather conditions. A significant increasing trends in annual rainfall (9.3 mm/year) and northeast monsoon rainfall (6.2 mm/monsoon) were only detected in the west coast region. No trend was found in the monthly rainfall, except for November in the west coast region. The spatial variation analysis shows that the east coast region, which received substantially higher amounts of rainfall during the northeast monsoon, has lower spatial rainfall variability and a more uniform rainfall distribution than other regions. A larger range for the monthly spatial variation was observed in the west coast region.

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“…The cool waters off the coast inhibit convective instability near the coast. The cool waters of the Great Lakes have the same effect on surrounding areas in the early summer [Scott and Shulman, 1978].…”

Section: Seasonal Frequency Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatological analysis of manually digitized radar data for the United States east of the Rocky Mountains

Baeck¹,

Smith²

1995

Water Resources Research

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Climatological analyses of manually digitized radar (MDR) data are presented to illustrate geographic, seasonal, and diurnal heterogeneities of precipitation over the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. MDR data consist of hourly radar reflectivity data for the contiguous United States at a grid scale of approximately 40 km. Analyses of MDR data for the period 1978–1992 are presented. MDR data are especially useful for studying the geographic contrasts in precipitation over the continental domain and the contrasts between land and ocean along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Climatological analyses of fractional coverage of rainfall on a continental scale are developed using MDR data. High‐resolution radar data from the RADAP II network are used to illustrate fractional coverage of rainfall within an individual MDR grid box. Intercomparison studies with rain gage data point to the potential for quantitative rainfall analyses based on MDR data. Analyses of MDR data illustrate the potential, and some of the difficulties, in using radar data for hydroclimatological studies.

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An Areal and Temporal Analysis of Precipitation in the Northeastern United States

Cited by 27 publications

References 0 publications

Interdecadal changes in the precipitation seasonal cycle over Southern South America and their relationship with surface temperature

Interdecadal changes in the precipitation seasonal cycle over Southern South America and their relationship with surface temperature

Variability of rainfall in Peninsular Malaysia

Climatological analysis of manually digitized radar data for the United States east of the Rocky Mountains

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