Spatiotemporal mapping of ENSO and PDO surface meteorological signals in British Columbia,Yukon, and southeast Alaska |
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| Abstract: | Abstract We assessed the impacts of some key Pacific ocean‐atmosphere circulation patterns on annual cycles of temperature and precipitation across British Columbia, Yukon, and southeast Alaska. The El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and ENSO conditional on PDO states were considered in composite analyses of 71 long, high‐quality datasets from surface meteorological stations. Month‐by‐month, station‐by‐station Monte Carlo bootstrap tests were employed to assess statistical significance. The results trace precipitation and temperature responses as a function of location, season, and climate mode. In summary, temperature responses were relatively uniform, with higher (lower) temperatures during the warm (cool) phases of these circulation patterns. Nevertheless, strength and seasonal persistence varied considerably with location and climate mode. Impacts were generally most consistent in winter and spring but could extend through most of the year. Overall spatiotemporal patterns in precipitation response were decoupled from those in temperature and were far more heterogeneous. Complexities in precipitation signals included north‐south inverse teleconnectivity along the Pacific coast, with a zero‐response hinge point in the approximate vicinity of northern Vancouver Island; seasonally opposite anomalies in several interior regions, which might conceivably reflect contrasting effects of Pacific climate modes on wintertime frontal storms versus summertime convective storms; and a consistent lack of substantial response in northwestern British Columbia and possibly southwestern Yukon, conjectured to reflect complications associated with the Icefield Ranges. The product is intended primarily as a basic‐level set of climate response maps for hydrologists, biologists, foresters, and others who require empirical assessments of relatively local‐scale, year‐round ENSO and PDO effects across this broad region. |
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