Summertime U.S. Precipitation Variability and Its Relation toPacific Sea Surface Temperature

Abstract

The year-to-year fluctuations in summertime precipitation over the U.S. Great Plains are examined in this study using data from 1950 to 1990. There are large interannual variabilities in precipitation amounts over the Great Plains during the period considered. A long-term trend in Great Plains precipitation from relatively wet conditions in the 1950s to relatively dry conditions in the 1980s is also identified. The spatial scale of the anomalous precipitation covers a large portion of the United States on seasonal mean timescales. It is shown that the Great Plains precipitation fluctuations are significantly correlated with the tropical, as well as North Pacific, sea surface temperature (SST) variations. Two leading modes of covariation between Pacific SST and the U.S. precipitation are identified, with the first mode having spatial and temporal characteristics of the El Niño–La Niña SST variation, while the second mode is confined to the North Pacific and contains the decadal trend. The relationship of both the SST and the precipitation variation with the atmospheric circulation is established through 500-mb height, as well as the sea level pressure fields. A well-defined wave train over the Pacific and North American region is found to be associated with the two leading modes. A southward-shifted jet stream over the central United States brings more synoptic storms into the region and causes excessive precipitation during wet events. The tropical SST and the U.S. precipitation may be connected through the anomalous tropical convection and its effects on the circulation. The relation between North Pacific SST and the U.S. precipitation is consistent with a strong atmospheric forcing on the North Pacific SST at a 1-month lead. It is also hypothesized that North Pacific SST feeds back onto the circulation through an enhanced (reduced) Pacific jet due to the increase (decrease) of the meridional SST gradient during dry (wet) summers. This appears to be consistent with the enhanced convection along the Pacific storm track and the intensified Pacific jet stream in the two recent dry summers (1983 and 1988).