Distinguishing southern Africa precipitation response by strength of El Niño events and implications for decision-making
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15548187 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Catherine Pomposi (0000-0001-6565-6228, University of California, Santa Barbara, corresponding author), Chris Funk (0000-0002-9254-6718, University of California, Santa Barbara), Shraddhanand Shukla (0000-0003-0077-6733, University of California, Santa Barbara), Laura Harrison (0000-0002-9157-5066), Tamuka Magadzire (0000-0003-2059-8647, University of California, Santa Barbara) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 074015-074015 |
| Publication date | 2018-06-15 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/aacc4c |
| OpenAlex | W2808313399 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 51 |
December–February precipitation in southern Africa during recent El Niño events is studied by distinguishing circulation and precipitation responses during strong and moderate-to-weak events. We find that while both strong and moderate-to-weak El Niño events tend to dry southern Africa, the pattern and magnitude of precipitation anomalies in the region are different, with strong El Niño events resulting in rainfall deficits often less than −0.88 standardized units and deficits of only about half that for the moderate-to-weak case. Additionally, the likelihood of southern Africa receiving less than climatologic precipitation is approximately 80% for strong El Niño events compared to just over 60% for moderate-to-weak El Niño. Strong El Niño events are found to substantially disrupt onshore moisture transports from the Indian Ocean and increase geopotential heights within the Angola Low. Since El Niño is the most predictable component of the climate system that influences southern Africa precipitation, the information provided by this assessment of the likelihood of dry conditions can serve to benefit early warning systems
Climatology · Geography · Geopotential · Geopotential height · Meteorology · Precipitation · Climate variability and models · Environmental Science · Hydrology and Drought Analysis · Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations · Geology
The climate hazards infrared precipitation with stations—a new environmental record for monitoring extremes
Updated high‐resolution grids of monthly climatic observations – the CRU TS3 .10 Dataset
The NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis
The Version-2 Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly Precipitation Analysis (1979–Present)
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2023 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |