NDLI: Reconciling droughts and landfalling tropical cyclones in the Southeastern United States

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Misra, Vasubandhu Bastola, Satish
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	A popular perception is that landfalling tropical cyclones help to mitigate droughts in the Southeastern United States (SeUS). However intriguing paradigms on the role of large scale SST variations on continental US including SeUS droughts and seasonal Atlantic tropical cyclone activity confronts us. These paradigms suggest that in the presence of warm (cold) eastern tropical Pacific and cold (warm) Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) lead to the increased likelihood of wetter (drier) conditions over the continental US including the SeUS. Juxtaposing this understanding with the fact that landfalling tropical cyclones contribute significantly to the annual mean total rainfall in the SeUS and in El Niño (La Niña) years with cold (warm) tropical Atlantic SSTA lead to reduced (increased) Atlantic tropical cyclone activity raises a conflict on the role of the large-scale SST variations in SeUS hydroclimate. This study attempts to investigate the apparent dichotomous role of the large scale SST variations on the SeUS hydrology by examining the role of rainfall from landfalling tropical cyclones in the SeUS to local seasonal droughts. Our study finds that the contribution of the rainfall from landfalling tropical cyclone on the mitigation of monthly drought in the 28 SeUS watersheds is relatively insignificant. So much so that the hydrological model uncertainty in estimating the drought index over the 28 SeUS watersheds is larger than the sensitivity exhibited by the drought index to the inclusion of rain from landfalling tropical cyclone. The conclusions of this study are justified by the fact that the timing of the landfalling tropical cyclone in relation to overall soil moisture conditions of the watershed does not coincide with a drought like situation in the 1948–2006 time period analyzed in this study. This largely stems from the fact that the large-scale flow pattern resulting in abundant (lack of) advection of moisture for anomalously wet (dry) summer and fall seasons in the SeUS emanating from the source region of the Caribbean Sea and the northwestern tropical Atlantic Ocean coincides with the steering flow of the Atlantic tropical cyclones bound to make landfall in the SeUS (recurving away from the SeUS).
Starting Page	1277
Ending Page	1286
Page Count	10
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09307575
Journal	Climate Dynamics
Volume Number	46
Issue Number	3-4
e-ISSN	14320894
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publisher Date	2015-05-14
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Atlantic hurricanes Droughts Teleconnection Hydrology Geophysics/Geodesy Climatology Oceanography
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Atmospheric Science

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Effect of ENSO on landfalling tropical cyclones over the Korean peninsula

Shortcomings in climate model simulations of the ENSO-Atlantic hurricane teleconnection

A long-term climatology of medicanes

Interannual and decadal variability of landfalling tropical cyclones in the southeast coastal states of the united states

An overview of research and forecasting on rainfall associated with landfalling tropical cyclones

Teleconnections of the tropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in a CMIP5 model ensemble

Regional climate model projections of rainfall from U.S. landfalling tropical cyclones

Trend and teleconnection patterns in the climatology of extratropical cyclones over the Southern Hemisphere

Tropical Atlantic influence on Pacific variability and mean state in the twentieth century in observations and CMIP5

Reconciling droughts and landfalling tropical cyclones in the Southeastern United States

Similar Documents

Effect of ENSO on landfalling tropical cyclones over the Korean peninsula

Shortcomings in climate model simulations of the ENSO-Atlantic hurricane teleconnection

A long-term climatology of medicanes

Interannual and decadal variability of landfalling tropical cyclones in the southeast coastal states of the united states

An overview of research and forecasting on rainfall associated with landfalling tropical cyclones

Teleconnections of the tropical Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in a CMIP5 model ensemble

Regional climate model projections of rainfall from U.S. landfalling tropical cyclones

Trend and teleconnection patterns in the climatology of extratropical cyclones over the Southern Hemisphere

Tropical Atlantic influence on Pacific variability and mean state in the twentieth century in observations and CMIP5

Reconciling droughts and landfalling tropical cyclones in the Southeastern United States