Relationships between Interdecadal and Interannual Climatic Variations and Their Effect on Pennsylvania Climate
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8378129 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Brent Yarnal (Pennsylvania State University), Daniel J Leathers (0000-0001-9002-9031, University of Nebraska–Lincoln) |
| Year | 1988 |
| Volume | 78 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 624-641 |
| Publication date | 1988-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annals of the Association of American Geographers (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-5608 • E-ISSN: 1467-8306 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-8306.1988.tb00235.x |
| OpenAlex | W2013102414 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 36 |
The variability of Pennsylvania winter climate is shown to be the result of mechanisms working on two distinctly different time scales: interdecadal and interannual. Interdecadal variability is associated with hemispheric changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation regimes. During periods of zonal flow, Pennsylvania temperatures are above normal, while meridional flow is associated with below-normal temperatures. Precipitation is near normal during zonal regimes, but can be either very dry (as it was in the 1960s) or abnormally wet (like the 1970s) with meridional flow, depending on the exact placement of the deepened trough over the eastern United States. Imbedded in the interdecadal fluctuations is interannual variability which is related to two important Northern Hemisphere teleconnection patterns: the Pacific/North American (PNA) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) patterns. Interannual changes in the atmospheric circulation, as expressed by indices of the two teleconnections, explain 50 percent of the variance in Pennsylvania winter temperature, but only 14 percent of the precipitation variance. It is argued that knowledge of such relationships provides a basis for refining and better interpreting models of greenhouse gas-induced climatic change. Key Words: climatic variabilityatmospheric circulationteleconnectionssynoptic climatology
Atmospheric Circulation · Atmospheric sciences · Climate change · Climatic variability · Climatology · El Niño Southern Oscillation · General Circulation Model · Geography · Meteorology · North Atlantic oscillation · Northern Hemisphere · Pacific decadal oscillation · Precipitation · Teleconnection · Trough (economics) · Zonal and meridional · Zonal flow (plasma) · Atmospheric Ozone and Climate · Climate variability and models · Environmental Science · Geology · Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations · Oceanography
Methodology in Climatology
Modelling river discharge and precipitation from estuarine salinity in the northern Chesapeake Bay
Late-Holocene climate and ecosystem history from Chesapeake Bay sediment cores, USA
The Influence of Regional Storm Tracking and Teleconnections on Winter Precipitation in the Northeastern United States
Detecting Structural Climate Change
Variations in the Association between Mid-tropospheric Flow and Surface Temperatures across the United States
Northern Hemisphere Climate Variability
Climatology at Urban Long-Term Ecological Research Sites
| Citations per year | 0.22 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1990 - 2012 (23) |
| Highly cited | No |