The Path of the Atlantic Hurricane of September 1947 in Relation to the Hemispheric Circulation

1947 ◽  
Vol 28 (10) ◽  
pp. 447-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
William H. Klein ◽  
Jay S. Winston
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Short Range ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Weather Forecasting ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Absolute Vorticity ◽  
Atlantic Hurricane

The movement of the Atlantic hurricane of September 11–20, 1947, into the Gulf of Mexico rather than up the Atlantic Coast, is attributed to dynamic anticyclogenesis over the eastern United States. An attempt is made to explain this anticyclogenesis by the transfer of energy downstream from the mid-Pacific at a rate considerably greater than the speed of individual air particles. The motion and change in intensity of 700 mb trough and ridge systems are discussed in terms of constant absolute vorticity, horizontal temperature advection, and the process of confluence. It is concluded that the large-scale features of the hemispheric circulation are of great importance for short-range, as well as for extended, weather forecasting.

scholarly journals Herbarium specimens reveal substantial and unexpected variation in phenological sensitivity across the eastern United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 374 (1763) ◽  
pp. 20170394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel S. Park ◽  
Ian Breckheimer ◽  
Alex C. Williams ◽  
Edith Law ◽  
Aaron M. Ellison ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Climatic Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Flowering Plant ◽  
Reproductive Phenology ◽  
Herbarium Specimens ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Regional Patterns ◽  
Continental Scale

Phenology is a key biological trait that can determine an organism's survival and provides one of the clearest indicators of the effects of recent climatic change. Long time-series observations of plant phenology collected at continental scales could clarify latitudinal and regional patterns of plant responses and illuminate drivers of that variation, but few such datasets exist. Here, we use the web tool CrowdCurio to crowdsource phenological data from over 7000 herbarium specimens representing 30 diverse flowering plant species distributed across the eastern United States. Our results, spanning 120 years and generated from over 2000 crowdsourcers, illustrate numerous aspects of continental-scale plant reproductive phenology. First, they support prior studies that found plant reproductive phenology significantly advances in response to warming, especially for early-flowering species. Second, they reveal that fruiting in populations from warmer, lower latitudes is significantly more phenologically sensitive to temperature than that for populations from colder, higher-latitude regions. Last, we found that variation in phenological sensitivities to climate within species between regions was of similar magnitude to variation between species. Overall, our results suggest that phenological responses to anthropogenic climate change will be heterogeneous within communities and across regions, with large amounts of regional variability driven by local adaptation, phenotypic plasticity and differences in species assemblages. As millions of imaged herbarium specimens become available online, they will play an increasingly critical role in revealing large-scale patterns within assemblages and across continents that ultimately can improve forecasts of the impacts of climatic change on the structure and function of ecosystems. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene’.

scholarly journals Investigating the Causes of Increased Twentieth-Century Fall Precipitation over the Southeastern United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 575-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel A. Bishop ◽  
A. Park Williams ◽  
Richard Seager ◽  
Arlene M. Fiore ◽  
Benjamin I. Cook ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Specific Humidity ◽  
Precipitation Trend ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Atmospheric Models ◽  
Coupled Models ◽  
Fully Coupled ◽  
Precipitation Trends

Abstract Much of the eastern United States experienced increased precipitation over the twentieth century. Characterizing these trends and their causes is critical for assessing future hydroclimate risks. Here, U.S. precipitation trends are analyzed for 1895–2016, revealing that fall precipitation in the southeastern region north of the Gulf of Mexico (SE-Gulf) increased by nearly 40%, primarily increasing after the mid-1900s. Because fall is the climatological dry season in the SE-Gulf and precipitation in other seasons changed insignificantly, the seasonal precipitation cycle diminished substantially. The increase in SE-Gulf fall precipitation was caused by increased southerly moisture transport from the Gulf of Mexico, which was almost entirely driven by stronger winds associated with enhanced anticyclonic circulation west of the North Atlantic subtropical high (NASH) and not by increases in specific humidity. Atmospheric models forced by observed SSTs and fully coupled models forced by historical anthropogenic forcing do not robustly simulate twentieth-century fall wetting in the SE-Gulf. SST-forced atmospheric models do simulate an intensified anticyclonic low-level circulation around the NASH, but the modeled intensification occurred farther west than observed. CMIP5 analyses suggest an increased likelihood of positive SE-Gulf fall precipitation trends given historical and future GHG forcing. Nevertheless, individual model simulations (both SST forced and fully coupled) only very rarely produce the observed magnitude of the SE-Gulf fall precipitation trend. Further research into model representation of the western ridge of the fall NASH is needed, which will help us to better predict whether twentieth-century increases in SE-Gulf fall precipitation will persist into the future.

scholarly journals Seasonal prediction of US summertime ozone using statistical analysis of large scale climate patterns

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (10) ◽  
pp. 2491-2496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Shen ◽  
Loretta J. Mickley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Surface Ozone ◽  
Tropical Atlantic ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Northeast Pacific ◽  
Ozone Concentrations ◽  
Climate Patterns ◽  
Ocean Atmosphere ◽  
Ozone Episodes

We develop a statistical model to predict June–July–August (JJA) daily maximum 8-h average (MDA8) ozone concentrations in the eastern United States based on large-scale climate patterns during the previous spring. We find that anomalously high JJA ozone in the East is correlated with these springtime patterns: warm tropical Atlantic and cold northeast Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs), as well as positive sea level pressure (SLP) anomalies over Hawaii and negative SLP anomalies over the Atlantic and North America. We then develop a linear regression model to predict JJA MDA8 ozone from 1980 to 2013, using the identified SST and SLP patterns from the previous spring. The model explains ∼45% of the variability in JJA MDA8 ozone concentrations and ∼30% variability in the number of JJA ozone episodes (>70 ppbv) when averaged over the eastern United States. This seasonal predictability results from large-scale ocean–atmosphere interactions. Warm tropical Atlantic SSTs can trigger diabatic heating in the atmosphere and influence the extratropical climate through stationary wave propagation, leading to greater subsidence, less precipitation, and higher temperatures in the East, which increases surface ozone concentrations there. Cooler SSTs in the northeast Pacific are also associated with more summertime heatwaves and high ozone in the East. On average, models participating in the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project fail to capture the influence of this ocean–atmosphere interaction on temperatures in the eastern United States, implying that such models would have difficulty simulating the interannual variability of surface ozone in this region.

Winter Weather Forecasting throughout the Eastern United States. Part II: An Operational Perspective of Cyclogenesis

1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
James J. Gurka ◽  
Eugene P. Auciello ◽  
Anthony F. Gigi ◽  
Jeff S. Waldstreicher ◽  
Kermit K. Keeter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Weather Forecasting ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Winter Weather

Shark Nursery Grounds of the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast Waters of the United States

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
The United States ◽  
Shark Species ◽  
Carcharhinus Plumbeus ◽  
Nursery Areas ◽  
Pesticide Metabolites

<em>Abstract.</em>—Because of their tendency to accumulate in estuaries and coastal regions, organochlorine (OC) contaminants such as pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) represent potential threats to the quality of essential fish habitat for many shark species. These compounds pose special risks to immature sharks in particular because of their ability to impair growth and sexual maturation in juvenile fish at environmentally relevant levels of exposure. In order to assess the extent of these risks in shark populations on the East Coast of the United States, the present study examined concentrations of 30 OC pesticides/pesticide metabolites and total PCBs in juvenile sandbar <em>Carcharhinus plumbeus </em>and blacktip <em>C. limbatus </em>sharks from seven major nursery areas in the western Atlantic Ocean and eastern Gulf of Mexico. Quantifiable levels of PCBs and 13 OC pesticides/ pesticide metabolites were detected via gas chromatography and mass spectrometry in liver of 25 young-of-the-year blacktip sharks from the southeastern U.S. Atlantic coast and three regions on Florida’s gulf coast: Cedar Key, Tampa Bay, and Charlotte Harbor. Similarly, quantifiable levels of PCBs and 14 OC pesticides/metabolites were detected in 23 juvenile <em>C. plumbeus </em>from three sites on the northeastern U.S. coast: middle Delaware Bay, lower Chesapeake Bay, and Virginia’s eastern shore. Liver OC concentrations in Atlantic sandbar and blacktip sharks were higher than expected and, in some cases, comparable with elevated levels observed in deep-sea and pelagic sharks. Although significantly lower than those observed in Atlantic sharks, pesticide and PCB levels in Florida blacktip sharks were similar to, if not greater than, OC concentrations reported in adults of other coastal shark species. Based on these data, OC contamination appears to pose significant threats to habitat quality in sandbar and blacktip shark nursery areas on the U.S. Atlantic coast.

Shrimps, Lobsters, and Crabs of the Atlantic Coast of the Eastern United States, Maine to Florida

Estuaries ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Lewis Wenner ◽  
Austin B. Williams
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Eastern United States

scholarly journals A UT/LS ozone climatology of the nineteen seventies deduced from the GASP aircraft measurement program

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 3451-3517 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Schnadt Poberaj ◽  
J. Staehelin ◽  
D. Brunner ◽  
V. Thouret ◽  
V. Mohnen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Nineteen Seventies ◽  
Large Variability ◽  
Tropical Regions ◽  
Mixing Ratios ◽  
Research Aircraft ◽  
Atmospheric Sampling

Abstract. The knowledge of historical ozone in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UT/LS) region is mostly confined to regular measurements from a number of ozonesonde stations. We present ozone measurements of the Global Atmospheric Sampling Program (GASP) performed from four commercial and one research aircraft during 1975 to 1979. Using GASP data, a UT/LS ozone climatology of 1975–1979 was built. Seasonality and concentrations of GASP UT ozone in the middle, subtropical and tropical regions of the northern hemisphere (NH) are generally in agreement with other published observations, derived from ozonesondes or aircraft campaigns. In regions where both GASP (1970s) and MOZAIC (1990s) data are available, similar ozone concentrations are found and seasonal cycles agree well confirming the reliability of GASP ozone. GASP provides unique large-scale climatological information on UT/LS ozone above the NH Pacific region. Agreement is found with observations from individual ozonesonde sites and aircraft campaigns carried out over this region. Tropical UT ozone is seen to be lower near the dateline than further east, presumably related to uplift of ozone poor air within convection. Over the west coast of the United States, summer UT ozone is higher than over the adjacent Pacific, probably caused by air pollution over southern California in the 1970s. GASP offers an unprecedented opportunity to link to European, Canadian and U.S. American ozonesonde observations of the 1970s. For the quantitative comparison, an altitude offset was applied to the sonde data to account for the slow response time of the sensors. In the LS, the European and Canadian Brewer-Mast (BM) sensors then agree to ±10% with the GASP instruments in all seasons. In the UT, the European BM sondes record similar to slightly less average ozone than GASP, however, with large variability overlaid. Over the eastern United States, systematic positive deviations of the Wallops Island ECC sondes from GASP of +20% are found. The comparisons over Europe and the eastern United States corroborate earlier findings that the early ECC sensors may have measured 10 to 25% more ozone than the BM sensors. Our results further indicate that applying the correction factor to the 1970s BM ozonesondes is necessary to yield reliable ozone mixing ratios in the UT/LS.

Geomagnetic Conditions and Anticyclonic Development *

1951 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 282-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Sparkman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Weather Forecasting ◽  
System Development ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Meteorological Observation ◽  
Pressure System ◽  
Geomagnetic Observations

The forecasting of development and movement of existing pressure systems are apparently the two outstanding problems of weather forecasting. This investigation was done with the belief that ordinary meteorological observation are not sufficient for an indication of the cause of development or movement of pressure systems and that other factors, probably solar, must be considered. Since geomagnetic changes are partly the result of solar radiation, geomagnetic observations were obtained and statistical tests were made of their relation to pressure system development. All such tests gave positive indications of a relation between the relative geomagnetic conditions of Tucson, Arizona and Cheltenham, Maryland and subsequent anticyclonic development over eastern United States.

Fluvial activity in major river basins of the eastern United States during the Holocene

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (9) ◽  
pp. 1279-1295
Author(s):  
Ray Lombardi ◽  
Lisa Davis ◽  
Gary E Stinchcomb ◽  
Samuel E Munoz ◽  
Lance Stewart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Cyclic Behavior ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
The Holocene

In the eastern United States, existing paleo-reconstructions in fluvial environments consist primarily of site-specific investigations of climate and human impacts on riverine processes. This paper presents the first meta-analysis of fluvial reconstructions focused on regional watersheds of the eastern United States, including the Lower Mississippi, Tennessee, South Atlantic–Gulf Coast, Ohio, Mid-Atlantic, and New England regional watersheds. Chronologies of fluvial activity (i.e. alluvial deposition) and stability (i.e. landscape stability) were developed by synthesizing data from existing, published, and site-specific fluvial reconstruction studies conducted across the eastern United States. Overall, regional watersheds show variable patterns of synchronicity across watersheds and did not demonstrate cyclic behavior through the Holocene. During the last millennium, only the Lower Mississippi and Ohio regional watersheds exhibit high rates of fluvial activity active during the ‘Medieval Climate Anomaly’ (650–1050 yr BP), while nearly all other regional watersheds in the eastern United States were active during the ‘Little Ice Age’ (100–500 yr BP). These findings imply that fluvial activity may be more spatially restricted during warmer/drier climatic conditions than during cooler/wetter periods. We find an increase in fluvial activity during the era of Euro-American colonization (400 yr BP to present) in the southeastern United States but not the northeastern United States, implying a heterogeneous response of fluvial systems to human activities in the eastern United States related to climatic, cultural, and/or physiographic variability. These new insights gained from fluvial chronologies in the eastern United States demonstrate the utility of regionally synthesized paleo-records to understand large-scale climate variation effect on rivers.

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