Archives: Articles

HOW DOES THE DROUGHT OF 2012 COMPARE TO EARLIER DROUGHTS IN KANSAS, USA?

Authors: Aavudai Anandhi, Mary Knapp
Volume: Volume 2016, No. 1, 23 May 2016
DOI: http://www.doi.org/10.46275/JoASC.2016.05.001
Abstract: Drought is a complex, least understood and one of the most expensive natural disaster. Drought impacts many sectors of environment and society. A regular question is how a current drought compares to previous droughts. Water managers, resource managers, news media and the general public want to place the event in context as they evaluate impacts, and as they attempt to plan for future events. There are many definitions of drought (meteorological, agricultural, hydrological and socioeconomic) resulting in a large number of drought metrics and indices in literature. In this study we have used Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), a useful tool to answer these questions. SPI is a transformation of the probability of a given amount of precipitation in a set period of months. This allows for the comparison of wet/dry spells over extremely different climates and over various time scales from one month to two years (24 months).
Link: https://stateclimate.org/pdfs/journal-articles/2016_Anandhi_Knapp.pdf

DERIVING HISTORICAL TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION TIME SERIES FOR ALASKA CLIMATE DIVISIONS VIA CLIMATOLOGICALLY AIDED INTERPOLATION

Authors: Russell S. Vose, Mike Squires, Derek Arndt, Imke Durre, Chris Fenimore, Karin Gleason, Matthew J. Menne, James Partain, Claude N. Williams, Jr., Peter A. Bieniek
Volume: Volume 2017, No. 1, 4 Oct 2017
DOI: http://www.doi.org/10.46275/JoASC.2017.10.001
Abstract: This paper describes the construction of temperature and precipitation time series for climate divisions in Alaska for 1925-2015. Designed for NOAA climate monitoring applications, these new series build upon the divisional data of Bieniek et al. (2014) through the inclusion of additional observing stations, temperature bias adjustments, supplemental temperature elements, and enhanced computational techniques (i.e., climatologically aided interpolation). The new NOAA series are in general agreement with Bieniek et al. (2014), differences being attributable to the underlying methods used to compute divisional averages in each dataset. Trends in minimum temperature are significant in most divisions whereas trends in maximum temperature are generally not significant in the eastern third of the state. Likewise, the statewide rate of warming in minimum temperature (0.158°C dec-1 ) is roughly 50% larger than that of maximum temperature (0.101 °C dec-1 ). Trends in precipitation are not significant for most divisions or for the state as a whole.
Link: https://stateclimate.org/pdfs/journal-articles/2017-Ross-etal.pdf