Anatomy of Great Plains Protracted Heat Waves (especially the 1980 U.S. summer drought)

Namias, Jerome

doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1982)110<0824:aogpph>2.0.co;2

Cited by 105 publications

(74 citation statements)

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“…13a) for 700 hPa heights in the summer season (all summers 1947 -1972) within the PNA region. The pattern shown by Namias (1982) shows a positive correlation between a base point, similarly located to ours in the East Pacific, and heights over North America and a negative correlation to regions near the continental coastal regions. Namias (1982) stated that this corresponds to a ridge over…”

Section: A Diagnosticssupporting

confidence: 80%

“…The study of the North American drought of 1980 by Namias (1982) provides some insight. He examined some of the antecedent general circulation features that presaged the occurrence of this summer drought and other North American summer droughts in more detail (Namias, 1982;. Specifically, he found that sea surface temperatures (SSTs) were much cooler than normal over most of the central North Pacific for a period of several months leading up to the summer of 1980, and his Fig.…”

Section: B Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An analysis of a relatively rare case of continental blocking

Lupo

Bosart

1999

Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society

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A planetary and synoptic-scale analysis of a relatively rare continental blocking event that occurred over North America during the spring of 1980 are undertaken to determine whether or not this event was different from its counterparts which occur over oceanic regions. The planetary-scale analysis demonstrates that, during the spring season, a ridge was located further inland over the North American continent and amplified with respect to climatology. The position of this ridge may have been linked to a broad region of colder-than-normal SSTs found over the north central Pacific during the spring season and much of the previous winter. Simple "Sutcliffe-type" and thermodynamic analyses of the accompanying lower tropospheric warm anomaly associated with the ridging shows that lower tropospheric temperature advection and subsidence associated with anticyclonic vorticity advection by the time mean thermal wind produced much of the anomalous warmth.A simple synoptic-scale analysis was performed using both the Zwack-Okossi (ZO) equation and potential vorticity (PV) thinking approaches. These complementary analyses demonstrated that synoptic-scale cyclones were instrumental in the formation and maintenance (and/or intensification) of this blocking event. The PV analysis demonstrated that low-PV air was swept poleward and then was advected over the blocking region sustaining the broad region of low potential vorticity associated with the block over North America. The ZO analysis showed that the advection of anticyclonic vorticity was the most important mechanism forcing geopotential height rises at 500 hPa over the block center. The region of low PV and ZO height rises could be associated with the anticyclonic shear side of an upstream jet maximum typically found in association with developing and/or intensifying blocking event. Thus, negative PV advection correlated significantly with calculated ZO height rises. Finally, it is suggested that a favorable phase-relationship between the upstream cyclones and the large-scale ridge is necessary for block development or intensification.

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Section: A Diagnosticssupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: B Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An analysis of a relatively rare case of continental blocking

Lupo

Bosart

1999

Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society

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“…;Hoerling et al 2013b). Midlatitude severe heat events often co-occur with rainfall deficits (Madden and Williams 1978;Namias 1982;Hoerling et al 2013a) and the associated atmospheric conditions and changes in surface energy balance that act to reinforce dry, hot conditions at the surface. These include positive geopotential height anomalies in the mid-troposphere (e.g., Chang and Wallace 1987;Meehl and Tebaldi 2004;Pal et al 2004;Fischer et al 2007a), which result in anticyclonic circulation anomalies and a relatively stable atmosphere, leading to decreased cloudiness and decreased precipitation along with decreased input of moisture and increased input of solar radiation at the surface.…”

Section: Likelihood Of July 2012 Us Temperatures In Preindustrial Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining Extreme Events of 2012 from a Climate Perspective

Peterson¹,

Hoerling²,

Stott³

et al. 2013

Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.

221

128

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“…Also, Lupo et al (2012b) studied the summer of 2010 drought that impacted western Russia, including the Belgorod region, which was due to strong and persistent blocking. Studying warm extremes in the cUSA has not been performed recently, although anomalous summer season warmth was studied previously (Namias, 1982(Namias, , 1983Lupo and Bosart, 1999). The former studies attributed anomalous summer season warmth to enhanced ridging, while the latter study examined precursors to the 1980 drought.…”

Section: Interannual and Interdecadal Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%