An Expanded Investigation of Atmospheric Rivers in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and Their Connection to Landslides

Previous examination of rain gauge observations over a five-year period at high elevations within a river basin of the southern Appalachian Mountains showed that half of the extreme (upper 2.5%) rainfall events were associated with an atmospheric river (AR). Of these extreme events having an AR association, over 73% were linked to a societal hazard at downstream locations in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. Our analysis in this study was expanded to investigate AR effects in the southern Appalachian Mountains on two river basins, located 60 km apart, and examine their influence on extreme rainfall, periods of elevated precipitation and landslide events over two time periods, the ‘recent’ and ‘distant’ past. Results showed that slightly more than half of the extreme rainfall events were directly attributable to an AR in both river basins. However, there was disagreement on individual ARs influencing extreme rainfall events in each basin, seemingly a reflection of its proximity to the Blue Ridge Escarpment and the localized terrain lining the river basin boundary. Days having at least one landslide occurring in western North Carolina were found to be correlated with long periods of elevated precipitation, which often also corresponded to the influence of ARs and extreme rainfall events.

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Investigation of Atmospheric Rivers Impacting the Pigeon River Basin of the Southern Appalachian Mountains

Weather and Forecasting ◽

10.1175/waf-d-17-0060.1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 283-299 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Douglas K. Miller ◽

David Hotz ◽

Jessica Winton ◽

Lukas Stewart

Keyword(s):

North Carolina ◽

River Basin ◽

Large Scale ◽

Large Fraction ◽

Appalachian Mountains ◽

Warm Season ◽

Atmospheric Rivers ◽

Southern Appalachian Mountains ◽

Low Level ◽

Southern Appalachian

Abstract Rainfall observations in the Pigeon River basin of the southern Appalachian Mountains over a 5-yr period (2009–14) are examined to investigate the synoptic patterns responsible for downstream flooding events as observed near Knoxville, Tennessee, and Asheville, North Carolina. The study is designed to address the hypothesis that atmospheric rivers (ARs) are primarily responsible for the highest accumulation periods observed by the gauge network and that these periods correspond to events having a societal hazard (flooding). The upper 2.5% (extreme) and middle 33% (normal) rainfall events flagged using the gauge network observations showed that half of the heaviest rainfall cases were associated with an AR. Of those extreme events having an AR influence, over 73% had a societal hazard defined as minor-to-major flooding at the USGS river gauge located in Newport, Tennessee, or flooding observations for locations near the Tennessee and North Carolina border reported in the Storm Data publication. Composites of extreme AR-influenced events revealed a synoptic pattern consisting of a highly amplified slow-moving positively tilted trough, suggestive of the anticyclonic Rossby wave breaking scenario that sometimes precedes hydrological events of high impact. Composites of extreme non-AR events indicated a large-scale weather pattern typical of a warm season scenario in which an anomalous low-level cyclone, cut off far from the primary upper-tropospheric jet, was located in the southeastern United States. AR events without a societal hazard represented a large fraction (75%–88%) of all ARs detected during the study period. Synoptic-scale weather patterns of these events were fast moving and had weak low-level atmospheric dynamics.

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The history and survival of traditional heirloom vegetable varieties in the southern Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina

Agriculture and Human Values ◽

10.1007/s10460-007-9097-6 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 25 (1) ◽

pp. 121-134 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

James R. Veteto

Keyword(s):

North Carolina ◽

Appalachian Mountains ◽

Southern Appalachian Mountains ◽

Southern Appalachian ◽

Western North Carolina

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ANALYSIS OF TRENDS OF EXTREME RAINFALL EVENTS USING MANN KENDALL TEST: A CASE STUDY IN PAHANG AND KELANTAN RIVER BASINS

Jurnal Teknologi ◽

10.11113/jt.v78.9696 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 78 (9-4) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mazlina Alang Othman ◽

Nor Azazi Zakaria ◽

Aminuddin Ab. Ghani ◽

Chun Kiat Chang ◽

Ngai Weng Chan

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

River Basin ◽

Extreme Event ◽

Extreme Rainfall ◽

River Basins ◽

Peninsular Malaysia ◽

Extreme Rainfall Events ◽

Rainfall Events ◽

Mk Test ◽

Kelantan River Basin

Climate change leads to changes in rainfall and extreme event. This phenomenon has already begun to transform the rainfall patterns in Malaysia. It was clearly proven when the northern and eastern states of Peninsular Malaysia such as Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perak and Johor were hit by the catastrophic floods in December 2014, events that have been described as the worst in decades. Although there are a number of studies in climate change and extreme rainfall events in Malaysia, there are still large knowledge gaps about their relationship. Understanding the shifts and predicting changing trends in rainfall distribution is needed for predicting and managing the floods. In this paper, Mann Kendall (MK) test and Sen's Slope estimator are employed to determine the trend of extreme rainfall events of various storm durations in the Pahang and Kelantan river basins. The results indicate that annual maximum daily rainfall for Pahang River basin and Kelantan River basin increased throughout 45 years. Results show that the percentage of stations with statistically significant trend (at 0.05 significance level) in the Kelantan River basin are higher compared to the Pahang River basin. Percentage of stations showing increasing trends were much higher for short duration rainfall (10, 30 and 60 minutes and 3 hours) compared to long duration rainfall (6, 12, 24, 48, 120 and 240 hours). This study will be useful for planning, designing and managing floods and stormwater systems in this area

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Moisture Sources for Extreme Rainfall Events over the Mackenzie River Basin

Cold Region Atmospheric and Hydrologic Studies. The Mackenzie GEWEX Experience ◽

10.1007/978-3-540-73936-4_7 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 127-136

Author(s):

Julian C. Brimelow ◽

Gerhard W. Reuter

Keyword(s):

River Basin ◽

Extreme Rainfall ◽

Extreme Rainfall Events ◽

Rainfall Events ◽

Moisture Sources ◽

Mackenzie River Basin ◽

Mackenzie River

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ASSESSING THE IMPACTS OF FLOODING CAUSED BY EXTREME RAINFALL EVENTS THROUGH A COMBINED GEOSPATIAL AND NUMERICAL MODELING APPROACH

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-archives-xli-b8-1271-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol XLI-B8 ◽

pp. 1271-1278

Author(s):

J. R. Santillan ◽

A. M. Amora ◽

M. Makinano-Santillan ◽

J. T. Marqueso ◽

L. C. Cutamora ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

River Basin ◽

Extreme Rainfall ◽

Hydrologic Model ◽

Extreme Rainfall Event ◽

Hazard Maps ◽

Extreme Rainfall Events ◽

Rainfall Events ◽

Modeling Approach ◽

Flood Depth

In this paper, we present a combined geospatial and two dimensional (2D) flood modeling approach to assess the impacts of flooding due to extreme rainfall events. We developed and implemented this approach to the Tago River Basin in the province of Surigao del Sur in Mindanao, Philippines, an area which suffered great damage due to flooding caused by Tropical Storms Lingling and Jangmi in the year 2014. The geospatial component of the approach involves extraction of several layers of information such as detailed topography/terrain, man-made features (buildings, roads, bridges) from 1-m spatial resolution LiDAR Digital Surface and Terrain Models (DTM/DSMs), and recent land-cover from Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 OLI images. We then used these layers as inputs in developing a Hydrologic Engineering Center Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC HMS)-based hydrologic model, and a hydraulic model based on the 2D module of the latest version of HEC River Analysis System (RAS) to dynamically simulate and map the depth and extent of flooding due to extreme rainfall events. The extreme rainfall events used in the simulation represent 6 hypothetical rainfall events with return periods of 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 years. For each event, maximum flood depth maps were generated from the simulations, and these maps were further transformed into hazard maps by categorizing the flood depth into low, medium and high hazard levels. Using both the flood hazard maps and the layers of information extracted from remotely-sensed datasets in spatial overlay analysis, we were then able to estimate and assess the impacts of these flooding events to buildings, roads, bridges and landcover. Results of the assessments revealed increase in number of buildings, roads and bridges; and increase in areas of land-cover exposed to various flood hazards as rainfall events become more extreme. The wealth of information generated from the flood impact assessment using the approach can be very useful to the local government units and the concerned communities within Tago River Basin as an aid in determining in an advance manner all those infrastructures (buildings, roads and bridges) and land-cover that can be affected by different extreme rainfall event flood scenarios.

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