A Historical Perspective of U.S. Climate Divisions

Guttman, Nathaniel B.; Quayle, Robert G.

doi:10.1175/1520-0477(1996)077<0293:ahpouc>2.0.co;2

Cited by 265 publications

(184 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Each state is composed of up to ten climate divisions that have been defined by the U.S. Weather Bureau in the 1940's (Guttman and Quayle, 1996). The average size of a climate division is 23,000 km 2 and ranges from few thousand up to 105,000 km 2 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decade-Scale Precipitation Increase in Great Plains at End of 20th Century

Garbrecht

Rossel

2002

J. Hydrol. Eng.

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During the 1980-1999 period, many regions in the Central and Southern Great Plains experienced the longest and strongest increase in average annual precipitation of the century. The size of the increase ranged from 6% to 12% of mean annual precipitation, and from 25% to 60% of inter-annual precipitation variability. Precipitation increased for dry, average and wet years, though not equally for each category. Generally precipitation in very wet years increased less than in average and dry years. The probability of occurrence of dry years was greatly reduced compared to earlier in the century, whereas the probability of average years remained about the same and the probability of wet years increased. The observed decade-scale precipitation increase is attributed to a reduction in the number and severity of dry years, as well as to an increase in the number of wet years, though very wet years did not increase as much. The seasonal distribution of the increase in precipitation showed no statistically significant prevalence during any one particular month, yet qualitative considerations suggest that early summer and autumn months capture more of the annual precipitation increase. In the northern and northwestern Great Plains, a similar precipitation increase, but of smaller proportions, was observed during the 1990-1999 period.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decade-Scale Precipitation Increase in Great Plains at End of 20th Century

Garbrecht

Rossel

2002

J. Hydrol. Eng.

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“…The number of weather stations in a given climate division varied through time. There are two different methods employed by the National Climatic Data Center to account for this variation: 1) for the period 1931-2011, weather station values were averaged directly, and 2) for the period 1895-1930, a regression technique was used to estimate the divisional values based on statewide values recorded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Guttman and Quayle 1996). The change in methodology creates issues for both periods.…”

Section: A Quantifying Droughtmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To account for undersampling for a given division, we examined the record of all recording stations to ensure that a substantial proportion (.90%) of stations was reporting. During 1895-1930 the regression models used to estimate climate division conditions were shown to have less variance than the post-1931 period (Guttman and Quayle 1996). To help account for this, we use precipitation data from the actual weather stations in the U.S.…”

Section: A Quantifying Droughtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tropical Cyclones and Drought Amelioration in the Gulf and Southeastern Coastal United States

et al. 2013

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Precipitation from land-falling tropical cyclones (TCs) has a significant hydroclimatic influence in the southeastern United States, particularly during drought years. The frequency with which TCs ended drought conditions was examined for southeastern coastal states from Texas to North Carolina during 1895-2011. The region was divided into the Gulf Coast states (GCS) and the southeastern Atlantic coast states (ACS). The spatiotemporal patterns of tropical cyclone drought busters (TCDBs) were analyzed. Larger-scale ocean-atmosphere influences on TCDBs were examined using chi-squared analysis. The ACS experienced TCDBs more frequently and farther inland compared to the GCS. The number of TCDBs has significantly increased with time in the ACS. TCDBs numbers in the GCS did not exhibit significant increases, but the area alleviated of drought conditions increased significantly in the last 117 years. The dominant larger-scale oceanatmosphere forcing of TCDBs was a combination of a warm Atlantic Ocean ABSTRACTPrecipitation from land-falling tropical cyclones (TCs) has a significant hydroclimatic influence in the southeastern United States, particularly during drought years. The frequency with which TCs ended drought conditions was examined for southeastern coastal states from Texas to North Carolina during 1895-2011. The region was divided into the Gulf Coast states (GCS) and the southeastern Atlantic coast states (ACS). The spatiotemporal patterns of tropical cyclone drought busters (TCDBs) were analyzed. Larger-scale oceanatmosphere influences on TCDBs were examined using chi-squared analysis. The ACS experienced TCDBs more frequently and farther inland compared to the GCS. The number of TCDBs has significantly increased with time in the ACS. TCDBs numbers in the GCS did not exhibit significant increases, but the area alleviated of drought conditions increased significantly in the last 117 years. The dominant larger-scale ocean-atmosphere forcing of TCDBs was a combination of a warm Atlantic Ocean [positive Atlantic multidecadal oscillation index (AMO1)] and weak westerlies [negative North Atlantic Oscillation index (NAO2)]. AMO1 leads to an increase in the number of TCs throughout the North Atlantic basin, and NAO2 increases the likelihood of TC landfall by controlling the steering of TCs toward the southeastern United States.

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“…The whitebark pine chronology shows less high-frequency and more low-frequency variability than the Douglas-fir chronology, a typical difference between higher-and lowerforest border tree-ring records. Tree-ring chronologies were calibrated against instrumental climate records for Idaho central mountains and northeast valleys, two homogenous climatic divisions [Karl et al, 1986;Guttman and Quayle, 1996] that include the sampled sites (Fig. 1).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

July temperature during the second millennium reconstructed from Idaho tree rings

Biondi

Perkins

Cayan

et al. 1999

Geophysical Research Letters

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Abstract. An 858-year proxy record of July temperature for east-central Idaho shows multi-decadal periods of extreme cooling centered around AD 1300, 1340, 1460, and after AD 1600. These cold intervals are interrupted by prolonged warm spells in the early 1400s, late 1500s, and in the 1930s. The spatial signature of the paleoclimate record is centered on the north-central Rockies and central Great Plains, and expands over North America following a wave-like pattern. Neither instrumental nor proxy data in Idaho northeast valleys show unusual warming during the twentieth century. Climate episodes over the last three centuries are in broad agreement with the Greenland borehole temperature history. Lowfrequency patterns are consistent with other northern hemisphere tree-ring records for the late Holocene, and provide a chronology of warm and cold intervals during the Little Ice Age.

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A Historical Perspective of U.S. Climate Divisions

Cited by 265 publications

References 8 publications

Decade-Scale Precipitation Increase in Great Plains at End of 20th Century

Decade-Scale Precipitation Increase in Great Plains at End of 20th Century

Tropical Cyclones and Drought Amelioration in the Gulf and Southeastern Coastal United States

July temperature during the second millennium reconstructed from Idaho tree rings

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