The art of the science: climate forecasts for wildfire management in the southeastern United States

This article illustrates how a wildfire risk forecast evolved iteratively based on stakeholder consultations. An assessment based on phone interviews indicates that such forecasts can assist fire management decisions, such as deployment of human, financial, and material resources and management of forest, timber, and habitats, and public safety. But careful attention to communication, collaboration, and capacity building is key to realizing this potential.     

Historical perspective on the dust bowl drought in the central United States

Three new 159-year long reconstructions of spring, summer, and growing season precipitation totals were developed for northeastern Kansas and northwestern Missouri from five station clusters (Lawrence, Leavenworth, and Manhattan, Kansas; Miami and Oregon, Missouri). Nonstandard observation practices are inherent in the early meteorological data, which can induce an undercount in precipitation measurements, particularly during the cool season. Threshold analyses of these five station clusters indicated undercount can be lessened for daily precipitation totals of 0.50 in. and greater during the warm season (“half-inch threshold”). Therefore, “adjusted reconstructions” of total precipitation for the spring (AMJ), summer (JA), and growing season (AMJJA) were derived using the “half-inch threshold” totals and an estimate of the missing amount between 0.00 and 0.50 in. based on an average of the modern observations at each station (or the nearest available station). The new precipitation reconstructions suggest that the most severe spring drought may have occurred during the mid-19th century, although the potential for undercount is likely highest during the spring season. The most severe summer precipitation deficit is estimated during the 1930s Dust Bowl drought, followed by the summer drought of the 1910s. When precipitation is totaled for the entire growing season, the mid-19th century and Dust Bowl droughts were of approximately equal magnitude and duration in this reconstruction. However, the integration of precipitation and temperature into seasonal measures of effective moisture, using a new 19th century temperature reconstruction for northeastern Kansas, indicates that the 1930s growing season moisture deficit was the most severe and sustained since 1855, highlighting the extraordinarily high temperatures recorded during the 1930s Dust Bowl drought.     

A surface energy budget view of the 1988 midwestern United States drought

Measurements of the surface energy budget over an Illinois corn field during the summer drought of 1988 yielded Bowen ratio values around 1 compared to potential values of 0.2–0.3 if soil moisture had not been limiting. An analysis of the atmospheric water vapor budget for the upper midwestern United States suggests that the measured decrease in evapotranspiration was significant and may have played a role in the persistence and severity of the drought by reducing the atmospheric water vapor supply and increasing the atmospheric heating rate.     

Climate variability and projected change in the western United States: regional downscaling and drought statistics

Climate change in the twenty-first century, projected by a large ensemble average of global coupled models forced by a mid-range (A1B) radiative forcing scenario, is downscaled to Climate Divisions across the western United States. A simple empirical downscaling technique is employed, involving model-projected linear trends in temperature or precipitation superimposed onto a repetition of observed twentieth century interannual variability. This procedure allows the projected trends to be assessed in terms of historical climate variability. The linear trend assumption provides a very close approximation to the time evolution of the ensemble-average climate change, while the imposition of repeated interannual variability is probably conservative. These assumptions are very transparent, so the scenario is simple to understand and can provide a useful baseline assumption for other scenarios that may incorporate more sophisticated empirical or dynamical downscaling techniques. Projected temperature trends in some areas of the western US extend beyond the twentieth century historical range of variability (HRV) of seasonal averages, especially in summer, whereas precipitation trends are relatively much smaller, remaining within the HRV. Temperature and precipitation scenarios are used to generate Division-scale projections of the monthly palmer drought severity index (PDSI) across the western US through the twenty-first century, using the twentieth century as a baseline. The PDSI is a commonly used metric designed to describe drought in terms of the local surface water balance. Consistent with previous studies, the PDSI trends imply that the higher evaporation rates associated with positive temperature trends exacerbate the severity and extent of drought in the semi-arid West. Comparison of twentieth century historical droughts with projected twenty-first century droughts (based on the prescribed repetition of twentieth century interannual variability) shows that the projected trend toward warmer temperatures inhibits recovery from droughts caused by decade-scale precipitation deficits.     

Potential impacts of sea-level rise on the Mid- and Upper-Atlantic Region of the United States

We made projections of relative sea-level rise, horizontal inundation, and the associated impacts on people and infrastructure in the coastal portion of the Mid- and Upper-Atlantic Region (MUAR) of the United States. The output of five global climate models (GCMs) run under two greenhouse gas scenarios was used in combination with tide gauge observations to project sea-level increases ranging from 200 to 900 mm by 2100, depending on location, GCM and scenario. The range mainly reflects equal contributions of spatial variability (due to subsidence) and GCM uncertainty, with a smaller fraction of the range due to scenario uncertainty. We evaluated 30-m Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) using 10-m DEMs and LIDAR data at five locations in the MUAR. We found average RMS differences of 0.3 m with the 10-m DEMs and 1.2 m with the LIDAR data, much lower than the reported mean RMS errors of 7 m for the 30-m DEMs. Using the 30-m DEMs, the GCM- and scenario-means of projected sea-level rise, and local subsidence estimates, we estimated a total inundation of 2,600 km² for the MUAR by 2100. Inundation area increases to 3,800 km² at high tide if we incorporate local tidal ranges in the analysis. About 510,000 people and 1,000 km of road lie within this area. Inundation area per length of coastline generally increases to south, where relative sea-level rise is greater and relief is smaller. More economically developed states, such as New York and New Jersey, have the largest number of people and infrastructure exposed to risk of inundation due to sea-level rise.     

Annual drought flow and groundwater storage trends in the eastern half of the United States during the past two-third century

Low flow drainage from a river system, in the absence of precipitation or snowmelt, derives directly from the water stored in the upstream aquifers in the basin; therefore, observations of the trends of the annual lowest flows can serve to deduce quantitative estimates of the evolution of the basin-scale groundwater storage over the period of the streamflow record. Application of this method has allowed for the first time to determine the magnitudes of the trends in groundwater storage over the past two-third century in some 41 large prototypical basins in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. It was found that during the period 1940–2007 groundwater storage has generally been increasing in most areas; these positive trends were especially pronounced in the Ohio and Upper Mississippi Water Resources Regions, but they were weaker in most other regions. Notable exceptions are the northern New England and especially the South Atlantic-Gulf regions, which saw prolonged declines in groundwater levels over this nearly 70-year long period. These observed long-term trends are generally in agreement with previous studies regarding trends of other components of the water cycle, such as precipitation, total runoff, and terrestrial evaporation. Over the most recent 20 years, from 1988 through 2007, except for the Ohio and the Souris-Red-Rainy regions, most regions have experienced declining average groundwater levels to varying degrees, with maximal values of the order of ?0.2 mm a^?1.     

Rainfall patterns in the eastern United States

This investigation is an extension of earlier work on rainfall patterns in the western United States. In the present study, rainfall figures from World Weather Records for cities east of the Mississippi have been subjected to filter analysis using the four filters described in the earlier investigation.The results suggest substantial coherence of rainfall data in a broad central area of North America, from the Great Lakes to the Rockies and into southern parts of the Canadian Prairies and Ontario. In this entire region there appears to be a pronounced rainfall cycle, of about 22 yr, which exhibits a possible relationship with the double sunspot cycle. However, inland from the U.S. north-east coast and including southern Quebec and the Canadian maritime Provinces, the cycle is different and is closer to 16 yr.Although the earlier investigation pointed to a connection between the lunar cycle of 18.6 yr and rainfall behaviour in the far west of the United States, there is little evidence of a similar connection in the east.     

A regional climate model for the western United States

A numerical approach to modeling climate on a regional scale is developed whereby large-scale weather systems are simulated with a global climate model (GCM) and the GCM output is used to provide the boundary conditions needed for high-resolution mesoscale model simulations over the region of interest. In our example, we use the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) community climate model (CCM1) and the Pennsylvania State University (PSU)/NCAR Mesoscale Model version 4 (MM4) to apply this approach over the western United States (U.S.). The topography, as resolved by the 500-km mesh of the CCM1, is necessarily highly distorted, but with the 60-km mesh of the MM4 the major mountain ranges are distinguished. To obtain adequate and consistent representations of surface climate, we use the same radiation and land surface treatments in both models, the latter being the recently developed Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS). Our analysis emphasizes the simulation at four CCM1 points surrounding Yucca Mountain, NV, because of the need to determine its climatology prior to certification as a high-level nuclear waste repository.We simulate global climate for three years with CCM1/BATS and describe the resulting January surface climatology over the western U.S. The details of the precipitation patterns are unrealistic because of the smooth topography. Selecting five January CCM1 storms that occur over the western U.S. with a total duration of 20 days for simulation with the MM4, we demonstrate that the mesoscale model provides much improved wintertime precipitation patterns. The storms in MM4 are individually much more realistic than those in CCM1. A simple averaging procedure that infers a mean January rainfall climatology calculated from the 20 days of MM4 simulation is much closer to the observed than is the CCM1 climatology. The soil moisture and subsurface drainage simulated over 3–5 day integration periods of MM4, however, remain strongly dependent on the initial CCM1 soil moisture and thus are less realistic than the rainfall. Adequate simulation of surface soil water may require integrations of the mesoscale model over time periods.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. of up to several months or longer.     

美国西部的长期干旱变化

一些水文气候资料分析表明,美国西部正在经历着多年的严重干旱。然而,利用重建的覆盖美国西部大部分地区的过去1200年的网格化干旱资料进行分析,看出与更早时期出现的极端干旱和发生在公元800～1300年间(中世纪暖期(MWP))的大范围严重干旱相比,现在正经历的干旱还不算很严重。如果美国西部干旱程度的加强是一种对气候变暖的自然响应,那么任何将来温度增暖的趋势都将会加剧美国西部地区的长期干旱。     

Climate Change Impacts on the Potential Productivity of Corn and Winter Wheat in Their Primary United States Growing Regions

We calculate the impacts of climate effects inferred from three atmospheric general circulation models (GCMs) at three levels of climate change severity associated with change in global mean temperature (GMT) of 1.0, 2.5 and 5.0 °C and three levels of atmospheric CO2 concentration ([CO2]) – 365 (no CO2 fertilization effect), 560 and 750 ppm – on the potential production of dryland winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and corn (Zea mays L.) for the primary (current) U.S. growing regions of each crop. This analysis is a subset of the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) which has the goal of integrating the linkages and feedbacks among human activities and resulting greenhouse gas emissions, changes in atmospheric composition and resulting climate change, and impacts on terrestrial systems. A set of representative farms was designed for each of the primary production regions studied and the Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) was used to simulate crop response to climate change. The GCMs applied were the Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS), the United Kingdom Meteorological Transient (UKTR) and the Australian Bureau of Meteorological Research Center (BMRC), each regionalized by means of a scenario generator (SCENGEN). The GISS scenarios have the least impact on corn and wheat production, reducing national potential production for corn by 6% and wheat by 7% at a GMT of 2.5 °C and no CO2 fertilization effect; the UKTR scenario had the most severe impact on wheat, reducing production by 18% under the same conditions; BMRC had the greatest negative impact on corn, reducing production by 20%. A GMT increase of 1.0°C marginally decreased corn and wheat production. Increasing GMT had a detrimental impact on both corn and wheat production, with wheat production suffering the greatest losses. Decreases for wheat production at GMT 5.0 and [CO2] = 365 ppm range from 36% for the GISS to 76% for the UKTR scenario. Increases in atmospheric [CO2] had a positive impact on both corn and wheat production. AT GMT 1.0, an increase in [CO2] to 560 ppm resulted in a net increase in corn and wheat production above baseline levels (from 18 to 29% for wheat and 2 to 5% for corn). Increases in [CO2] help to offset yield reductions at higher GMT levels; in most cases, however, these increases are not sufficient to return crop production to baseline levels.     

Standardized estimates of climate change damages for the United States

Nordhaus (1991), Cline (1992), Fankhauser (1992), and Titus (1992) have published comprehensive estimates of annual climate change damages to the United States in about 2060 that vary from $55 billion to $111 billion ($1990). The estimates are comprehensive because they address market and nonmarket impacts. They based their estimates on different assumptions about the rates of climate change and sea level rise, rates of return on investment, and changes in population and income. In addition, many of the damage estimates, although reported for a 2.5–3.0 °C warming, were based on studies that assumed higher rates of warming. Thus, these studies may have overestimated damages associated with a 2.5–3.0 °C warming. In this paper, the results of these studies were standardized for a 2.5 °C warming, a 50-cm sea level rise, 1990 income and population, and a 4% real rate of return on investments. After standardization, the total damage estimates range from $42.3 billion to $52.8 billion, slightly less than 1% of United States GNP in 1990. Yet, within individual sectors, such as agriculture and electricity, standardized damages differ by more than an order of magnitude. In addition, a significant amount of speculation underlies the damage estimates. Thus, the small range of total standardized damages and apparent agreement about the magnitude of such damages should be interpreted with caution.     

Temporal features in thunder days in the United States

1901–80 data for the contiguous U.S. show that secular variability of thunder days was very much less than that of precipitation or of frequency of extra tropical cyclones. Overall, there may have been a slight decline, but more evident was an increase to the thirties followed by a falling off, broken only by a peak in the seventies. These up-and-down movements were evident in most months of the year and regions of the U.S. The general decrease, however, was clear only in the South East and replaced by an increase in the Upper Great Lakes region. Secular variation in thunder day frequency was slightly correlated positively with that of extra tropical cyclone frequency and negatively with sea level pressure. The analysis also confirmed well known seasonal and regional patterns of thunder activity.     

Long-Term Fluctuations in Thunderstorm Activity in the United States

Thunder-day occurrences during a 100-year period based on data from carefully screened records of 86 first-order stations distributed across the United States were assessed for temporal fluctuations and trends during 1896–1995. Short-term (<10-year) fluctuations of adjacentstations were often dissimilar reflecting localized differences in storm activity in a few years, making spatial interpretations difficult. But, temporal fluctuations based on 20-year and longer periods exhibited regional coherence reflecting the control of large, synoptic-scale weather systems on the distribution of thunderstorms over broad areas. Classification of station fluctuations based on 20-year periods revealed six types of distributions existed and they formed 12 discrete areas across the nation. One type present in the lower Midwest and the South had a peak in storm activity in 1916–1935 followed by a general decline to 1976–1995.A second type maximizing at the same time had its minimum earlier, in 1956–1975. Another distribution found at stations in the upper Midwest and Northeast had a mid-century peak (1936–1955) with a recent minimum in1976–1995. A fourth distribution also peaked in 1936–1955 but had an early minimumin 1896–1915, and it mainly occurred in the northern plains and Rocky Mountains. A fifth distribution peaked during 1956–1975 and was foundat stations in four areas including the central High Plains, Southwest, northern Great Lakes, and Southeast. The sixth temporal distribution showed a steady increase in storm activity during the 100-year period, peaking in 1976–1995, and covered a large area extending from the Pacific Northwestacross the central Rockies and into the southern High Plains. The national average distribution based on all station values peaked in mid century. The national distribution differs markedly from several regional distributions illustrating the importance of using regional analysis to assess temporal fluctuations in severe weather conditions in the nation. The 100-year linear trends of the 86 stations defined six regions across the U.S. Significant upward trends existed over most of the western two-thirds of the nation, unchanging trends existed in the northern plains and Midwest, and downward trends were found in most of the nation's east. The up trends in storm-day frequencies in the southern plains occurred where storm damage is greatest and where demographic changes have added to storm losses over time. The national patterns of trends and storm distributions were similar to those found for hail. The temporal distributions of storm activity helped explain recent increases in major storms and their losses, conditions which have increased in the west and south.     

Design alternatives for a domestic carbon trading scheme in the United States

One critical aspect of the Kyoto Protocol is its flexibility in compliance. Countries or groups of countries are free to choose their own implementation strategies. Should the United States ratify the Protocol, it will most likely use emissions trading in some form to implement this accord. Two variations on a US domestic carbon trading system are presented here. One is an auction system controlling carbon at the point of energy production and distribution. The second is a hybrid system allocating permits to large combustors and controlling smaller sources through standards. Within this paper we describe and compare the main attributes of each system. Separate sections also discuss various methods for allocating permits and incorporating standards.     

United States non-cooperation and the Paris agreement

In June 2017, the Trump administration decided to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement, a landmark climate agreement adopted in 2015 by 195 nations. The exit of the US has not just raised concern that the US will miss its domestic emission reduction targets, but also that other parties to the Paris Agreement might backtrack on their initial pledges regarding emission reductions or financial contributions. Here we assess the magnitude of the threat that US non-cooperation poses to the Paris Agreement from an international relations perspective. We argue that US non-cooperation does not fundamentally alter US emissions, which are unlikely to rise even in the absence of new federal climate policies. Nor does it undermine nationally determined contributions under pledge and review, as the Paris Agreement has introduced a new logic of domestically driven climate policies and the cost of low-carbon technologies keeps falling. However, US non-participation in raising climate finance could raise high barriers to global climate cooperation in the future. Political strategies to mitigate these threats include direct engagement by climate leaders such as the European Union with key emerging economies, notably China and India, and domestic climate policies that furnish benefits to traditional opponents of ambitious climate policy.

Key policy insights

• US non-cooperation need not be a major threat to pledge and review under the Paris Agreement.

• US non-cooperation is a serious threat to climate finance.

• Deeper engagement with emerging economies offers new opportunities for global climate policy.

     

Spuriously induced temperature trends in the Southeast United States

Summary This study uses correlation and multiple regression techniques to document differences in annual temperature trends between the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) Climate Division Database (CDD) and the United States Historical Climate Network (USHCN) for the Southeast United States. Results indicate that an increase (decrease) in elevation and a northward (southward) shift in mean station location in the CDD correspond with decreases (increases) in temperature. Although the movement of station locations in the CDD showed only modest impacts on trends, the effects of the movements are statistically significant, and explain some of the variances in the temperature trends. Results therefore suggest that climate divisions with more rugged terrain and greater shifts in elevation are more susceptible to spuriously generated trends.     

Spuriously induced precipitation trends in the southeast United States

This study uses correlation and multiple regression techniques to document differences in annual and seasonal precipitation trends between the NCDC Climate Division database and the United States Historical Climate Network (USHCN) in the southeast United States. Findings indicate that the majority of climate divisions have different temporal patterns than those depicted by the USHCN. They did not, however, consistently possess statistically significant relationships between the ratio (CDD/USHCN) and changes in mean station location as noted in other studies. It appears that other influences cause the majority of the variance between the two datasets. The fact that the two datasets do not consistently agree, however, suggests that spuriously induced trends may be present in the NCDC Climate Division database.     

Uncertainties in projected runoff over the conterminous United States

Projections of runoff from global multi-model ensembles provide a valuable basis for the estimation of future hydrological extremes. However, projections suffer from uncertainty that originates from different error sources along the modeling chain. Hydrological impact studies have generally partitioned these error sources into global impact and global climate model (GIM and GCM, respectively) uncertainties, neglecting other sources, including scenarios and internal variability. Using a set of GIMs driven by GCMs under different representative concentration pathways (RCPs), this study aims to partition the uncertainty of future flows coming from GIMs, GCMs, RCPs, and internal variability over the CONterminous United States (CONUS). We focus on annual maximum, median, and minimum runoff, analyzed decadally over the twenty-first century. Results indicate that GCMs and GIMs are responsible for the largest fraction of uncertainty over most of the study area, followed by internal variability and to a smaller extent RCPs. To investigate the influence of the ensemble setup on uncertainty, in addition to the full ensemble, three ensemble configurations are studied using fewer GIMs (excluding least credible GIMs in runoff representation and GIMs accounting for vegetation and CO₂ dynamics), and excluding intermediate RCPs. Overall, the use of fewer GIMs has a minor impact on uncertainty for low and medium flows, but a substantial impact for high flows. Regardless of the number of pathways considered, RCPs always play a very small role, suggesting that improvement of GCMs and GIMs and more informed ensemble selections can yield a reduction of projected uncertainties.