Abstract
AbstractThe sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) associated with the Victoria mode (VM) can persist into the following season and then influence climate variability in the tropical Pacific. This paper demonstrates the connection between the preceding boreal winter VM and precipitation in the following spring over the southeastern United States (SE USA) and the Gulf of Mexico (GM). The results indicate that a positive (negative) preceding winter VM is usually followed by increased (reduced) precipitation over the SE USA and GM during the following spring. The corresponding mechanism is similar, but slightly different to, the seasonal footprinting mechanism. For positive VM cases, the preceding-winter VM-related SSTAs appear to persist into the following spring via air–sea interactions, which then induce low-level convergence and vigorous ascending motion, leading to an adjustment of the zonal and meridional circulation. This adjustment can then influence the local Hadley cell by weakening the downward...
Highlights
The Victoria mode (VM) is the second empirical orthogonal function mode (EOF2) of sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the North Pacific north of 20°N (Bond et al 2003; Ding et al, “The Victoria Mode,” 2015), and is distinct from the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (Mantua et al 1997; Zhang, Wallace, and Battisti 1997), which is the leading mode of North Pacific climate variability
To investigate the link between the preceding winter VM and following spring precipitation over the USA, we show in Figure 2(a) the correlation coefficients between the DJFaveraged VM index (VMI) and the MAMaveraged precipitation anomalies over the USA based on the GPCP data-set
This paper focuses on the relationship between the preceding winter VM and precipitation over the southeastern United States (SE USA) and Gulf of Mexico (GM) during the following spring
Summary
The Victoria mode (VM) is the second empirical orthogonal function mode (EOF2) of sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the North Pacific north of 20°N (Bond et al 2003; Ding et al, “The Victoria Mode,” 2015), and is distinct from the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (Mantua et al 1997; Zhang, Wallace, and Battisti 1997), which is the leading mode of North Pacific climate variability (figure not shown). The spring VM has been linked to variability in Pacific ITCZ precipitation during the following summer (Ding et al, “The Impact of South Pacific”, 2015). In positive VM cases, SSTAs in the subtropics associated with the spring VM persist until summer and develop towards the equator, inducing low-level convergence that leads to enhanced precipitation over the central-eastern Pacific ITCZ region. Wang et al (2010) found that spring precipitation over the southeastern United States (SE USA) is affected by SST patterns in the Pacific. Many studies have focused on the correlation between the VM and the tropical Pacific climate system (Ding et al, “The Victoria Mode”, “The Impact of South Pacific”, 2015). We explore a possible connection between the preceding winter VM and following spring precipitation over the SE USA and the Gulf of Mexico (GM) with the ENSO signal removed
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