Floods in northern California, January 1997

Harmon, Jerry G.

doi:10.3133/fs07399

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 3 publications

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“…Precipitation is enhanced by increased evaporation from the warmer surface water. The result is an increase in the number and intensity of storms (Harmon, 1999). The storms that occurred in the Cuyama River Basin ( fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Floods in Cuyama Valley, California, February 1998

Bowers¹,

Houston²

2001

Fact Sheet

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Floods in Cuyama Valley, California, February 1998

Bowers¹,

Houston²

2001

Fact Sheet

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Atmospheric Circulation Patterns Associated with Extreme United States Floods Identified via Machine Learning

Schlef

Moradkhani

Lall

2019

Sci Rep

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The massive socioeconomic impacts engendered by extreme floods provides a clear motivation for improved understanding of flood drivers. We use self-organizing maps, a type of artificial neural network, to perform unsupervised clustering of climate reanalysis data to identify synoptic-scale atmospheric circulation patterns associated with extreme floods across the United States. We subsequently assess the flood characteristics (e.g., frequency, spatial domain, event size, and seasonality) specific to each circulation pattern. To supplement this analysis, we have developed an interactive website with detailed information for every flood of record. We identify four primary categories of circulation patterns: tropical moisture exports, tropical cyclones, atmospheric lows or troughs, and melting snow. We find that large flood events are generally caused by tropical moisture exports (tropical cyclones) in the western and central (eastern) United States. We identify regions where extreme floods regularly occur outside the normal flood season (e.g., the Sierra Nevada Mountains due to tropical moisture exports) and regions where multiple extreme flood events can occur within a single year (e.g., the Atlantic seaboard due to tropical cyclones and atmospheric lows or troughs). These results provide the first machine-learning based near-continental scale identification of atmospheric circulation patterns associated with extreme floods with valuable insights for flood risk management.

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Uncovering the role of the East Asian jet stream and heterogeneities in atmospheric rivers affecting the western United States

Zhang

Villarini

2018

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Atmospheric rivers (ARs) exert major socioeconomic repercussions along the US West Coast by inducing heavy rainfall, flooding, strong winds, and storm surge. Despite the significant societal and economic repercussions of these storms, our understanding of the physical drivers responsible for their interannual variability is limited, with different climate modes identified as possible mechanisms. Here we show that the Pacific-Japan (PJ) teleconnections/patterns and the East Asian subtropical jet (EASJ) exhibit a strong linkage with the total frequency of ARs making landfall over the western United States, much stronger than the other potential climate modes previously considered. While our findings indicate that the PJ pattern and EASJ are the most relevant climate modes driving the overall AR activity, we also uncover heterogeneities in AR tracks. Specifically, we show that not all ARs making landfall along the West Coast come from a single population, but rather that it is possible to stratify these storms into three clusters. While the PJ pattern and EASJ are major drivers of AR activity for two clusters, the cluster that primarily affects the US Southwest is largely driven by other climate modes [El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Atlantic meridional mode (AMM), the Pacific-North America (PNA) teleconnection pattern, and the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO)]. Therefore, important regional differences exist and this information can substantially enhance our ability to predict and prepare for these storms and their impacts.

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Floods in northern California, January 1997

Cited by 3 publications

References 3 publications

Floods in Cuyama Valley, California, February 1998

Floods in Cuyama Valley, California, February 1998

Atmospheric Circulation Patterns Associated with Extreme United States Floods Identified via Machine Learning

Uncovering the role of the East Asian jet stream and heterogeneities in atmospheric rivers affecting the western United States

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