Relationship between Winter/Spring Snowfall and Summer Precipitation in the Northern Great Plains of North America

Quiring, Steven M.; Kluver, Daria

doi:10.1175/2009jhm1089.1

Cited by 26 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Our results show positive correlation between the SPI and soil moisture, which are in line with the results reported by Quiring and Kluver () and Wu and Kinter () attesting the appropriateness of SPI to assess the soil moisture. Several studies dealing with drought–soil moisture relationship (Sims and Raman, ; Dai et al , ) demonstrate that the strongest correlation between PDSI and soil moisture is shown in late summer, and the weakest correlation is shown in spring, when snowmelt is an important contributor to soil moisture.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Driving role of snow cover on soil moisture and drought development during the growing season in the Czech Republic

Potopová

Boroneanţ²,

Možný

et al. 2015

Int. J. Climatol.

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This study presents a detailed analysis on the role of snow cover during the cold season (October-March) on soil moisture deficit and drought development during the growing season (April-September) in the lowland and highland sites in the Czech Republic. Besides daily, weekly and seasonal series of basic snow-cover characteristics [the first day and the last day of snow cover, the number of days with snow cover (DSC), snow depth and snow water equivalent (SWE)] and soil water content measurements, six drought indices have been used in this study to quantify drought. Accumulations of years with significantly below average DSC/SWE were recorded in the early 1960s, mid-1980s, late 1990s and most of the 2000s. The trend towards an earlier end date of snow cover is found in both lowland and highland sites. However, the most significant shift in the dates of early end of snow cover has been identified to occur mostly in the hilly areas while in the lowland areas, these changes are not that evident. Liquid precipitation more than solid precipitation (snowfall) during the cold season lead to weakening correlation between SWE/DSC and the subsequent early summer (April-May-June, AMJ) soil moisture. Snow-cover characteristics can significantly influence soil water saturation during the first part of the growing season, while seasonal amount of SWE can explain up to 45% of soil moisture variability during AMJ season. More than 52% of dry AMJ followed after cold seasons with poor snow, and 42% of wet AMJ season followed after cold seasons with abundant snow. The strength of correlation between drought indices and soil moisture anomalies is higher in later summer. The negative anomalous snow characteristics in conjunction with winter and AMJ drought amplify lingering impact on the depletion of soil moisture in the later summer.KEY WORDS anomalous snow seasons; snow-cover depth; snow water equivalent; snow phenology; soil moisture; drought indices (SPI, SPEI, PDSI, scPDSI, Z-index, scZ-index)

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Driving role of snow cover on soil moisture and drought development during the growing season in the Czech Republic

Potopová

Boroneanţ²,

Možný

et al. 2015

Int. J. Climatol.

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“…A negative relationship was found between the winter PNA index and FHB intensity in Ohio at a period of 5.1 years, and between the spring PNA index and FHB intensity in Indiana for several periods. Ge et al (19) showed that the PNA is associated with snow pack in several parts of the United States, and recent work (13,41) has begun to investigate the effect of winter/ spring snow mass anomalies on the spring/summer season. Coleman and Rogers (6) showed that the PNA index was inversely related to winter precipitation in the Ohio River Valley region, with the strongest relationship found in southern Indiana.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variability in Fusarium Head Blight Epidemics in Relation to Global Climate Fluctuations as Represented by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Other Atmospheric Patterns

Kriss¹,

Paul²,

Madden³

2012

Phytopathology®

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Cross-spectral analysis was used to characterize the relationship between climate variability, represented by atmospheric patterns, and annual fluctuations of Fusarium head blight (FHB) disease intensity in wheat. Time series investigated were the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI), which is a measure of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Pacific-North American (PNA) pattern and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), which are known to have strong influences on the Northern Hemisphere climate, and FHB disease intensity observations in Ohio from 1965 to 2010 and in Indiana from 1973 to 2008. For each climate variable, mean climate index values for the boreal winter (December to February) and spring (March to May) were utilized. The spectral density of each time series and the (squared) coherency of each pair of FHB-climate-index series were estimated. Significance for coherency was determined by a nonparametric permutation procedure. Results showed that winter and spring ONI were significantly coherent with FHB in Ohio, with a period of about 5.1 years (as well as for some adjacent periods). The estimated phase-shift distribution indicated that there was a generally negative relation between the two series, with high values of FHB (an indication of a major epidemic) estimated to occur about 1 year following low values of ONI (indication of a La Niña); equivalently, low values of FHB were estimated to occur about 1 year after high values of ONI (El Niño). There was also limited evidence that winter ONI had significant coherency with FHB in Indiana. At periods between 2 and 7 years, the PNA and NAO indices were coherent with FHB in both Ohio and Indiana, although results for phase shift and period depended on the specific location, climate index, and time span used in calculating the climate index. Differences in results for Ohio and Indiana were expected because the FHB disease series for the two states were not similar. Results suggest that global climate indices and models could be used to identify potential years with high (or low) risk for FHB development, although the most accurate risk predictions will need to be customized for a region and will also require use of local weather data during key time periods for sporulation and infection by the fungal pathogen.

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“…However, the effects of snowfall/snowmelt on recharge were not as significant as extreme rainfall in other seasons in this study region. In addition, the relationship between winter/spring snowfall and summer soil moisture was partly explained by soil moisture in the Northern Great Plains (Quiring and Kluver, 2009). …”

Section: Dynamics Of Gwr and Epmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme precipitation drives groundwater recharge: the Northern High Plains Aquifer, central United States, 1950–2010

Zhang

Felzer

Troy

2016

Hydrological Processes

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Abstract:Future extreme precipitation (EP, daily rainfall amount over certain thresholds) is projected to increase with global climate change; however, its effect on groundwater recharge has not been fully explored. This study specifically investigates the spatiotemporal dynamics of groundwater recharge and the effects of extreme precipitation (daily rainfall amount over the 95th percentile, which is tagged by ranking the percentiles in each season for a base period) on groundwater recharge from 1950 to 2010 over the Northern High Plains (NHP) Aquifer using the Soil Water Balance Model. The results show that groundwater recharge significantly (p < 0.05) increased in the eastern NHP from 1950 to 2010, where the highest annual average groundwater recharge occurs compared to the central and the western NHP. In the eastern NHP, 45.1% of the annual precipitation fell as EP, which contributed 56.8% of the annual total groundwater recharge. In the western NHP, 30.9% of the annual precipitation fell as extreme precipitation, which contributed 62.5% of the annual total groundwater recharge. In addition, recharge by extreme precipitation mainly occurred in late spring and early summer, before the maximum evapotranspiration rate, which usually occurs in mid-summer until late fall. A dry site in the western NHP and a wet site in the eastern NHP were analysed to indicate how recharge responds to EP with different precipitation regimes. The maximum daily recharge at the dry site exceeded the wet site when there was EP. When precipitation fell as non-extreme rainfall, most recharge was less than 5 mm at both the dry and wet sites, and the maximum recharge at the dry site became lower than the wet site. This study shows that extreme precipitation plays a significant role in determining groundwater recharge.

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Relationship between Winter/Spring Snowfall and Summer Precipitation in the Northern Great Plains of North America

Cited by 26 publications

References 78 publications

Driving role of snow cover on soil moisture and drought development during the growing season in the Czech Republic

Driving role of snow cover on soil moisture and drought development during the growing season in the Czech Republic

Variability in Fusarium Head Blight Epidemics in Relation to Global Climate Fluctuations as Represented by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Other Atmospheric Patterns

Extreme precipitation drives groundwater recharge: the Northern High Plains Aquifer, central United States, 1950–2010

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