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More frequent intense and long-lived storms dominate the springtime trend in central US rainfall

The changes in extreme rainfall associated with a warming climate have drawn significant attention in recent years. Mounting evidence shows that sub-daily convective rainfall extremes are increasing faster than the rate of change in the atmospheric precipitable water capacity with a warming climate....

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Autores principales: Feng, Zhe, Leung, L. Ruby, Hagos, Samson, Houze, Robert A., Burleyson, Casey D., Balaguru, Karthik
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5114602/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27834368
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13429
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author Feng, Zhe
Leung, L. Ruby
Hagos, Samson
Houze, Robert A.
Burleyson, Casey D.
Balaguru, Karthik
author_facet Feng, Zhe
Leung, L. Ruby
Hagos, Samson
Houze, Robert A.
Burleyson, Casey D.
Balaguru, Karthik
author_sort Feng, Zhe
collection PubMed
description The changes in extreme rainfall associated with a warming climate have drawn significant attention in recent years. Mounting evidence shows that sub-daily convective rainfall extremes are increasing faster than the rate of change in the atmospheric precipitable water capacity with a warming climate. However, the response of extreme precipitation depends on the type of storm supported by the meteorological environment. Here using long-term satellite, surface radar and rain-gauge network data and atmospheric reanalyses, we show that the observed increases in springtime total and extreme rainfall in the central United States are dominated by mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), the largest type of convective storm, with increased frequency and intensity of long-lasting MCSs. A strengthening of the southerly low-level jet and its associated moisture transport in the Central/Northern Great Plains, in the overall climatology and particularly on days with long-lasting MCSs, accounts for the changes in the precipitation produced by these storms.
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spelling pubmed-51146022016-11-29 More frequent intense and long-lived storms dominate the springtime trend in central US rainfall Feng, Zhe Leung, L. Ruby Hagos, Samson Houze, Robert A. Burleyson, Casey D. Balaguru, Karthik Nat Commun Article The changes in extreme rainfall associated with a warming climate have drawn significant attention in recent years. Mounting evidence shows that sub-daily convective rainfall extremes are increasing faster than the rate of change in the atmospheric precipitable water capacity with a warming climate. However, the response of extreme precipitation depends on the type of storm supported by the meteorological environment. Here using long-term satellite, surface radar and rain-gauge network data and atmospheric reanalyses, we show that the observed increases in springtime total and extreme rainfall in the central United States are dominated by mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), the largest type of convective storm, with increased frequency and intensity of long-lasting MCSs. A strengthening of the southerly low-level jet and its associated moisture transport in the Central/Northern Great Plains, in the overall climatology and particularly on days with long-lasting MCSs, accounts for the changes in the precipitation produced by these storms. Nature Publishing Group 2016-11-11 /pmc/articles/PMC5114602/ /pubmed/27834368 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13429 Text en Copyright © 2016, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Feng, Zhe
Leung, L. Ruby
Hagos, Samson
Houze, Robert A.
Burleyson, Casey D.
Balaguru, Karthik
More frequent intense and long-lived storms dominate the springtime trend in central US rainfall
title More frequent intense and long-lived storms dominate the springtime trend in central US rainfall
title_full More frequent intense and long-lived storms dominate the springtime trend in central US rainfall
title_fullStr More frequent intense and long-lived storms dominate the springtime trend in central US rainfall
title_full_unstemmed More frequent intense and long-lived storms dominate the springtime trend in central US rainfall
title_short More frequent intense and long-lived storms dominate the springtime trend in central US rainfall
title_sort more frequent intense and long-lived storms dominate the springtime trend in central us rainfall
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5114602/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27834368
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13429
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