Authors
Yochanan Kushnir, Jennifer Nakamura
Publication date
2017/12
Journal
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
Volume
2017
Pages
GC52B-04
Description
The climate signature of precipitation extremes in the Northwest US-the region that includes Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming-is studied using composite analysis of atmospheric fields leading to and associated with extreme rainfall events. A K-Medoids cluster analysis is applied to winter (November-February) months, maximum 5-day precipitation amounts calculated from 1-degree gridded daily rainfall between 1950/51 and 2013/14. The clustering divides the region into three sub-regions: one over the far eastern part of the analysis domain, includeing most of Montana and Wyoming. Two other sub-regions are in the west, lying north and south of the latitude of 45N. Using the time series corresponding to the Medoid centers, we extract the largest (top 5%) monthly extreme events to form the basis for the composite analysis. The main circulation feature distinguishing a 5-day extreme precipitation …
Scholar articles
Y Kushnir, J Nakamura - AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, 2017