El Niño and its impact on fire weather conditions in Alaska

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason C. Hess ◽  
Carven A. Scott ◽  
Gary L. Hufford ◽  
Michael D. Fleming

Examining the relationship of El Niño to weather patterns in Alaska shows wide climate variances that depend on the teleconnection between the tropics and the northern latitudes. However, the weather patterns exhibited in Alaska during and just after moderate to strong El Niño episodes are generally consistent: above normal temperature and precipitation along the Alaskan coast, and above normal temperature and below normal precipitation in the interior, especially through the winter. The warm, dry conditions in the Alaskan interior increase summer wildfire potential. Statistics on the area burned since 1940 show that 15 out of 17 of the biggest fire years occurred during a moderate to strong El Niño episode. These 15 years account for nearly 63% of the total area burned over the last 58 years. Evidence points to increased dry thunderstorms and associated lightning activity during an El Niño episode; the percentage of total area burned by lightning caused fires during five episodes increased from a normal of less than 40% to a high of about 96%.

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-95
Author(s):  
S. F. Amakiri

The relationship between mean skin thickness or hair follicle depth of the skin from the midside (12th rib) area and milk production levels of pure Friesian (Holstein)cattle breeds, their ¾ and 7/8 crosses with White Fulani zebu, and pure White Fulanis, maintained in South-Western Nigeria were studied. A strongly positive linear correlation (r = 0.9), significant at 1% level was found between skin thickness and hair follicle depth, and milk production levels in these breeds. The results indicate that for cows maintained in a hot humid tropical environment, comparative midside skin thickness and hair follicle depth could be used as indices of the milk production potential of cows. It could be a useful field tool for selection of cows for milk production when considered along with other characteristics


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hoffmann ◽  
Jascha Lehmann ◽  
Bijan H. Fallah ◽  
Fred F. Hattermann

AbstractRecent studies have shown that hydro-climatic extremes have increased significantly in number and intensity in the last decades. In the Northern Hemisphere such events were often associated with long lasting persistent weather patterns. In 2018, hot and dry conditions prevailed for several months over Central Europe leading to record-breaking temperatures and severe harvest losses. The underlying circulation processes are still not fully understood and there is a need for improved methodologies to detect and quantify persistent weather conditions. Here, we propose a new method to detect, compare and quantify persistence through atmosphere similarity patterns by applying established image recognition methods to day to day atmospheric fields. We find that persistent weather patterns have increased in number and intensity over the last decades in Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude summer, link this to hydro-climatic risks and evaluate the extreme summers of 2010 (Russian heat wave) and of 2018 (European drought). We further evaluate the ability of climate models to reproduce long-term trend patterns of weather persistence and the result is a notable discrepancy to observed developments.


Author(s):  
Paige Zhang ◽  
Kathryn Wiens ◽  
Ri Wang ◽  
Linh Luong ◽  
Donna Ansara ◽  
...  

Hypothermia is a preventable condition that disproportionately affects individuals who experience homelessness, yet limited data exist to inform the response to cold weather. To fill this gap, we examined the association between meteorological conditions and the risk of hypothermia among homeless individuals. Hypothermic events were identified from emergency department charts and coroner’s records between 2004 and 2015 in Toronto, Canada. A time-stratified case-crossover design with conditional logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between the meteorological conditions (minimum temperature and precipitation) and the risk of hypothermia. There were 97 hypothermic events identified: 79 injuries and 18 deaths. The odds of experiencing a hypothermic event increased 1.64-fold (95% CI: 1.30–2.07) with every 5 °C decrease in the minimum daily temperature and 1.10-fold (95% CI: 1.03–1.17) with every 1 mm increase in precipitation. The risk of hypothermia among individuals experiencing homelessness increased with declining temperature; however, most cases occurred during periods of low and moderate cold stress. 72% occurred when the minimum daily temperatures were warmer than −15 °C. These findings highlight the importance of providing a seasonal cold weather response to prevent hypothermia, complemented by an alert-based response on extremely cold days.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (44) ◽  
pp. 21-21
Author(s):  
Alexander Saakian ◽  
◽  

In 2005-2015. studied the effect of liquid organic fertilizer BIOOD-1 as foliar feeding on the yield and quality of various potato varieties in changing meteorological conditions. According to the results of the experiments, it was established that the most stable yields under various weather conditions were shown by the potatoes of the mid-season variety Bryansk delicacy. The low starch content of varieties Nevsky, Udacha was noted in years of high humidity, but with a lack of moisture, the starch content of these varieties increased in the background variant and in the experiment with organic fertilization. Keywords: CLIMATIC CONDITIONS, HYDROTHERMAL COEFFICIENT, MEAN SENIOR PRECIPITATION, POTATO, YIELD, STARCH, HUMIC FERTILIZERS


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Hassan Shabbir ◽  
Jiquan Zhang ◽  
Xingpeng Liu ◽  
James A. Lutz ◽  
Carlos Valencia ◽  
...  

We examined the relationship between climate variables and grassland area burned in Xilingol, China, from 2001 to 2014 using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, and describe the application of this econometric method to studies of climate influences on wildland fire. We show that there is a stationary linear combination of non-stationary climate time series (cointegration) that can be used to reliably estimate the influence of different climate signals on area burned. Our model shows a strong relationship between maximum temperature and grassland area burned. Mean monthly wind speed and monthly hours of sunlight were also strongly associated with area burned, whereas minimum temperature and precipitation were not. Some climate variables like wind speed had significant immediate effects on area burned, the strength of which varied over the 2001–14 observation period (in econometrics terms, a ‘short-run’ effect). The relationship between temperature and area burned exhibited a steady-state or ‘long-run’ relationship. We analysed three different periods (2001–05, 2006–10 and 2011–14) to illustrate how the effects of climate on area burned vary over time. These results should be helpful in estimating the potential impact of changing climate on the eastern Eurasian Steppe.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Hoffmann ◽  
Jascha Lehmann ◽  
Bijan Fallah ◽  
Fred Hattermann

<p>Changes in weather persistence are of particular concern in the context of climate change as periods of longer persistence can reinforce weather extremes. In our study we apply structural image recognition methods to global ERA5 reanalysis data to identify when, where and how long isolines of atmospheric geopotential height fields run in similar tracks. We identify regions and episodes around the world in which, retrospectively, unusually long-lasting weather patterns repeatedly occurred. Concerning the temperature and precipitation meteorological fields, we derive a connection between the occurrence of weather persistence and hydro-climatic extreme events.</p><p>Based on our new method we find that weather persistence has been particularly increasing in Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes in summer confirming earlier studies. Here, highly populated regions like Central Europe have experienced long-term increases in persistent weather conditions of up to 4-5% between 1981 and 2019 amplifying the risk of prolonged heat waves and droughts. Further, we show that climate models tend to have difficulties in capturing the dynamics of weather persistence and thus may severely underestimate the frequency and magnitude of future extremes events in their climate projections.</p>


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