The 1986 Southeast Drought in Historical Perspective

Karl, Thomas R.; Young, Pamela J.

doi:10.1175/1520-0477(1987)068<0773:tsdihp>2.0.co;2

Cited by 31 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…The eastern deciduous forest biotne of North Atnerica has a temperate and humid climate (Trewartha 1968). Nevertheless, drought, soil moisture deficits and heat spells are common occurrences during the growing season (Karl & Young 1987;Cook, Kablaek & Jaeoby 1988;Huang & van den Dool 1993), A partieularly severe dry and hot spell oeeurred in the region between the central Great Plains and the Atlantic eoast during the summer of 1995 (Livezey & Tinker 1996). In eastern Tennessee, where we eonduet field studies over a broad-leaved forest, July was abnormally dry and its mean temperature was among the 25 warmest in the last 100 years (Livezey & Tinker 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Measuring and modelling carbon dioxide and water vapour exchange over a temperate broad‐leaved forest during the 1995 summer drought

Baldocchi¹

1997

Plant Cell & Environment

288

234

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Forests in the south-eastern United States experienced a prolonged dry spell and above-normal temperatures during the 1995 growing season. During this episode, nearly continuous, eddy covariance measurements of carbon dioxide and water vapour fluxes were acquired over a temperate, hardwood forest. These data are used to examine how environmental factors and accumulating soil moisture deficits affected the diurnal pattern and magnitude of canopy-scale carbon dioxide and water vapour fluxes. The field data are also used to test an integrative leaf-to-canopy scaling model (CANOAK), which uses micrometeorological and physiological theory, to calculate mass and energy fluxes. When soil moisture was ample in the spring, peak rates of net ecosystem CO2 exchange (A'pj occurred around midday and exceeded 20 ;Umol m~^ s"'. Rates of A',; were near optimal when air temperature ranged between 22 and 25°C. The accumulation of soil moisture deficits and a co-occurrence of high temperatures caused peak rates of daytime carbon dioxide uptake to occur earlier in the morning. High air temperatures and soil moisture deficits were also correlated with a dramatic reduction in the magnitude of N^. On average, the magnitude of N,i decreased from 20 to 7 ^umol m"^ s"' as air temperature increased from 24 to 30°C and the soil dried. The CANAOK model yielded accurate estimates of canopyscale carbon dioxide and water vapour fluxes when the forest had an ample supply of soil moisture. During the drought and heat spell, a cumulative drought index was needed to adjust the proportionality constant of the stomata] conductance model to yield accurate estimates of canopy CO2 exchange. The adoption of the drought index also enabled the CANOAK model to give improved estimates of evaporation until midday. On the other hand, the scheme failed to yield accurate estimates of evaporation during the afternoon.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Measuring and modelling carbon dioxide and water vapour exchange over a temperate broad‐leaved forest during the 1995 summer drought

Baldocchi¹

1997

Plant Cell & Environment

288

234

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“…During the past three decades, summer droughts repeatedly struck the Southeast, causing devastating socioeconomic impacts on this region. For example, the 1986 Southeast summer drought caused billions of dollars of damage in agriculture (Bergman et al 1986;Karl and Young 1987). The 2000 drought caused a 40% reduction in Georgia's crop production and $739 million in economic loss in a single state (McKissick et al 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intensification of Summer Rainfall Variability in the Southeastern United States during Recent Decades

Wang

Kumar

et al. 2010

Journal of Hydrometeorology

127

120

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The variability of summer precipitation in the southeastern United States is examined in this study using 60-yr (1948-2007) rainfall data. The Southeast summer rainfalls exhibited higher interannual variability with more intense summer droughts and anomalous wetness in the recent 30 years than in the prior 30 years . Such intensification of summer rainfall variability was consistent with a decrease of light (0.1-1 mm day 21 ) and medium (1-10 mm day 21 ) rainfall events during extremely dry summers and an increase of heavy (.10 mm day 21) rainfall events in extremely wet summers. Changes in rainfall variability were also accompanied by a southward shift of the region of maximum zonal wind variability at the jet stream level in the latter period. The covariability between the Southeast summer precipitation and sea surface temperatures (SSTs) is also analyzed using the singular value decomposition (SVD) method. It is shown that the increase of Southeast summer precipitation variability is primarily associated with a higher SST variability across the equatorial Atlantic and also SST warming in the Atlantic.

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“…Various techniques have been used to characterize drought conditions, including principal components analysis (Karl & Koscielny 1982, Cook et al 1999, Knapp et al 2002, tree-ring analysis (Cook et al 1988, Cook et al 1999, Timilsena et al 2007), synoptic analyses (Trenberth et al 1988, Palmer & Branković 1989, McCabe et al 2004, and analyses of frequency, duration, and drought rank / recurrence intervals (RI) (Diaz 1983, Karl & Young 1987, Soulé 1992, González & Valdés 2006. Pielke et al (2005) argue that the spatial scale of the study is important in determining the historical rank.…”

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confidence: 99%

United States drought of 2007: historical perspectives

Maxwell¹,

Soulé²

2009

Clim. Res.

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The impacts of the United States drought of 2007 to both society and ecosystems were substantive and included multi-billion dollar agricultural losses and the second worst wildfire season on record. The purpose of this paper is to place the 2007 drought in historical perspective relative to the climate record from 1895-2007 to increase our understanding of this hazard and contribute to improvements of drought mitigation plans. We compared the 2007 drought historically against the climatic record (1895-2007) using the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). We then examined the temporal progression of the 2007 drought and placed the peak month of drought severity (November) in historical perspective using rankings of severity and statistical recurrence intervals. Moreover, we examined the climatic factors (e.g. geopotential height anomalies) that contributed to both abnormally dry and wet conditions recorded within the continental United States. While there were regions that experienced the worst drought on record both annually and in November during the calendar year 2007, this year was not as severe as other notable drought years. November 2007 ties (with 5 other years) for the 12th worst on record in terms of the number of climatic divisions experiencing the worst November drought. Statistically, drought/wetness conditions in November 2007 were not exceptionally extreme, with almost all of the calculated statistical recurrence intervals being much less than the 113 year period of record. KEY WORDS: PDSI · Historical rank · Recurrence interval · Media · Geopotential height · Anomalies Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherClim Res 38: [95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104] 2009 tering lawns, washing automobiles, and other noncritical uses of water (CBS News; www.cbsnews. com/stories/2007/05/29/national/main2861151.shtml? source=search_story). Further, drought conditions helped produce one of the worst wildfire seasons on record, with 3.8 × 10 6 ha burned nationwide in 2007, which is the second largest amount in recorded history (NOAA 2007a). Wahlquist (2003) found that media coverage of drought influences public perceptions and community mitigation plans. She argues that most of the public receives information about drought conditions through the media; thus, the way the media reports on a current drought will influence how the public prepares for future droughts.Drought occurs throughout the entire United States and can potentially be severe anywhere (Cook et al. 1999). Research on drought in the United States is diverse and includes examinations of intensity, frequency, causes, and spatial and temporal patterns (Oglesby & Erickson III 1989, Soulé 1990, Knapp et al. 2002, Hoerling & Kumar 2003, Salas et al. 2005. When severe, drought is a natural hazard that can cause billions of dollars in damages (Wilhite 2000). Continued research on the causes and patterns of drought will increase our understanding of this hazard and contribute to improvements of dr...

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The 1986 Southeast Drought in Historical Perspective

Cited by 31 publications

References 4 publications

Measuring and modelling carbon dioxide and water vapour exchange over a temperate broad‐leaved forest during the 1995 summer drought

Measuring and modelling carbon dioxide and water vapour exchange over a temperate broad‐leaved forest during the 1995 summer drought

Intensification of Summer Rainfall Variability in the Southeastern United States during Recent Decades

United States drought of 2007: historical perspectives

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