Identification

Title

Opposing trends in winter Atmospheric River over the Western and Eastern US during the past four decades

Abstract

<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(34, 34, 34);display:inline !important;float:none;font-family:-apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Winter atmospheric rivers (ARs) are crucial for water supply and extreme weather events over the western (WUS) and eastern US (EUS), yet their long-term trends and interplay remain unclear. Here we fill this gap by analyzing multiple observational AR products over the past four decades. Contrasting yet interrelated trends emerge in AR frequency, intensity, and associated mean precipitation. A decline in AR activity over WUS contributes to a drying trend, while notable increases over EUS foster a wetter climate. These trends are driven by large-scale atmospheric and oceanic variability in the Pacific, which strengthens anticyclonic circulation patterns near both coasts. These anticyclonic patterns, however, have opposing effects–impeding ARs from steering to WUS while facilitating their development over EUS. Our findings present a unified explanation for the observed AR trends and have co-beneficial implications for mitigating concerns related to AR-induced extreme events across both densely populated coastal regions.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7d2232f

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2025-03-29T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact