Anomalies in the US precipitation extremes and their association with different modes of climate variability

ABSTRACT

In this study, we investigate the temporal oscillations of precipitation extremes in different climate regions of the United States. We apply quantile perturbation analysis to average daily precipitation and, to 1041 weather stations with high-quality data from 1900 to 2016. Moreover, we explore the relationship between the extreme precipitation and different well-known cyclical climate modes. Overall, the analysis of average daily precipitation identifies a drier condition in the middle decades of the twentieth century and, a wetter climate in the early century and recent decades. Moreover, the in situ analysis reveals a significant anomaly, mainly prevalent in the Central and Southern regions of the United States. We applied a finite set of linear regression models with different combinations of cyclical climate modes to inform the variability of anomalies with best performing models. Our results highlight the dominant effect of ENSO and NAO in the wide area of the United States.