The Climatological Impact of Recurving North Atlantic Tropical Cyclones on Downstream Extreme Precipitation Events

Abstract

Abstract This study provides the first climatological assessment of the impact of recurving North Atlantic tropical cyclones (TCs) on downstream precipitation extremes. The response is evaluated based on time-lagged composites for 146 recurving TCs between 1979 and 2013 and quantified by the area affected by precipitation extremes (PEA) in a domain shifted relative to the TC–jet interaction location, which often encompasses major parts of Europe. The statistical significance of the PEA response to the TCs is determined using a novel bootstrapping technique based on flow analogs. A statistically significant increase in PEA is found between lags +42 and +90 h after the TC–jet interaction, with a doubling of the PEA compared to analog cases without recurving TCs. A K-means clustering applied to the natural logarithm of potential vorticity fields [ln(PV)] around the TC–jet interaction points reveals four main flow configurations of North Atlantic TC–jet interactions. Two main mechanisms by which recurving TCs can foster precipitation extremes farther downstream emerge: 1) an “atmospheric river–like” mechanism, with anomalously high integrated vapor transport (IVT) downstream of the recurving TCs and 2) a “downstream-development” mechanism, with anomalously high IVT ahead of a downstream trough. Hereby, the analog bootstrapping technique separates the impact of the TC from that of the midlatitude flow’s natural evolution on the PEA formation. This analysis reveals an unequivocal effect of the TCs for the atmospheric river–like cases, while for the downstream-development cases, a substantial increase in PEA is also found in the analogs without a TC.