Conference proceeding
Reconstruction of pre-instrumental storm track trajectories across the U.S. Pacific Northwest using circulation-based field sampling of Pinus Ponderosa
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, Vol.2015
American Geophysical Union 2015 fall meeting
12/2015
Abstract
The trajectory of incoming storms from the Pacific Ocean is a key influence on drought and flood regimes in western North America. Flow is typically from the west in a zonal pattern, but decadal shifts between zonal and meridional flow have been identified as key features in hydroclimatic variability over the instrumental period. In Washington and most of the Pacific Northwest, there tend to be lower-latitude storm systems that result in decreased precipitation in El Nino years. However, the Columbia Basin in central Washington behaves in opposition to the surrounding region and typically has average to above-average precipitation in El Nino years due to changing storm-track trajectories and a decreasing rain shadow effect on the leeward side of the Cascades. This direct connection between storm-track position and precipitation patterns in Washington provided an exceptional opportunity for circulation-based field sampling and chronology development. New Pinus ponderosa (Ponderosa pine) tree-ring chronologies were developed from eight sites around the Columbia Basin in Washington and used to examine year-to-year changes in moisture regimes. Results show that these sites are representative of the two distinct climate response areas. The divergence points between these two site responses allowed us to reconstruct changing precipitation patterns since the late-17th century, and to link these patterns to previously reconstructed atmospheric pressure and El Nino indices. This study highlights the potential for using synoptic climatology to inform field-based proxy collection.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Reconstruction of pre-instrumental storm track trajectories across the U.S. Pacific Northwest using circulation-based field sampling of Pinus Ponderosa
- Creators
- Erika Wise - University of North Carolina at Chapel HillMatthew P. Dannenberg
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding
- Publication Details
- American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, Vol.2015
- Conference
- American Geophysical Union 2015 fall meeting
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union
- Alternative title
- AGU 2015 fall meeting
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/2015
- Academic Unit
- Geographical and Sustainability Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984264525602771
Metrics
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