Precipitation

About: Precipitation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 32861 publications have been published within this topic receiving 990496 citations. The topic is also known as: rain & rainfall.

Impact of El Niño on precipitation in Mexico

Abstract: ENSO is capable of affecting normal climatic patterns around the world. El Nino, and its counterpart, La Nina, modify the normal precipitation patterns in Mexico. In general, during El Nino (La Nina) winters, precipitation increases (decreases) over northwestern Mexico, while it decreases (increases) in the region around the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. A southward shift in the position of the subtropical jet stream increases the number of Northerners over the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico. A summer El Nino causes a deficit in precipitation. Various mechanisms, associated with El Nino, result in negative precipitation anomalies over most of Mexico. Enhanced subsidence associated with a southward shift of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITZC), more intense trade winds, a decreased number of tropical cyclones over the Intra Americas Seas (IAS) and reduced relative humidity, may result in severe droughts. These elements produced major socioeconomic loses during the summer of 1997 that could be directly related to El Nino. During La Nina years, climate conditions return to normal or result in enhanced precipitation. Current seasonal prediction schemes appear to be skillful enough to provide useful information in the planning of certain socioeconomic activities.

Wetlands of tropical South America

Abstract: The climate of tropical South America is characterized over large areas by a high annual precipitation, varying from 1,000 mm to more than 5,000 mm per year. A pronounced seasonality in rainfall results in the periodic flooding of large areas covered by forests or savanna vegetation. Therefore, most of the wetlands in this area belong to the category of seasonal wetlands with a pronounced dry period.

Heavy precipitation in a changing climate: Does short-term summer precipitation increase faster?

Abstract: Climate models project that heavy precipitation events intensify with climate change. It is generally accepted that extreme day-long events will increase at a rate of about 6–7% per degree warming, consistent with the Clausius-Clapeyron relation. However, recent studies suggest that subdaily (e.g., hourly) precipitation extremes may increase at about twice this rate. Conventional climate models are not suited to assess such events, due to the limited spatial resolution and the need to parametrize convective precipitation (i.e., thunderstorms and rain showers). Here we employ a convection-resolving model using a horizontal grid spacing of 2.2 km across an extended region covering the Alps and its larger-scale surrounding from northern Italy to northern Germany. Consistent with previous results, projections using a Representative Concentration Pathways version 8.5 greenhouse gas scenario reveal a significant decrease of mean summer precipitation. However, unlike previous studies, we find that both extreme day-long and hour-long precipitation events asymptotically intensify with the Clausius-Clapeyron relation. Differences to previous studies might be due to the model or region considered, but we also show that it is inconsistent to extrapolate from present-day precipitation scaling into the future.

A 900‐year (600 to 1500 A.D.) record of the Indian summer monsoon precipitation from the core monsoon zone of India

Abstract: [1] We present a near-annually resolved record of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) rainfall variations for the core monsoon region of India that spans from 600 to 1500 A.D. from a 230Th-dated stalagmite oxygen isotope record from Dandak Cave. Our rainfall reconstruction, which spans the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) and the earliest portion of the Little Ice Age (LIA), indicates that the short instrumental record of ISM underestimates the magnitude of monsoon rainfall variability. Periods of severe drought, lasting decades, occurred during the 14th and mid 15th centuries and coincided with several of India's most devastating famines.

Anthropogenic sulfate aerosol and the southward shift of tropical precipitation in the late 20th century

Abstract: [1] In this paper, we demonstrate a global scale southward shift of the tropical rain belt during the latter half of the 20th century in observations and global climate models (GCMs). In rain gauge data, the southward shift maximizes in the 1980s and is associated with signals in Africa, Asia, and South America. A southward shift exists at a similar time in nearly all CMIP3 and CMIP5 historical simulations, and occurs on both land and ocean, although in most models the shifts are significantly less than in observations. Utilizing a theoretical framework based on atmospheric energetics, we perform an attribution of the zonal mean southward shift of precipitation across a large suite of CMIP3 and CMIP5 GCMs. Our results suggest that anthropogenic aerosol cooling of the Northern Hemisphere is the primary cause of the consistent southward shift across GCMs, although other processes affecting the atmospheric energy budget also contribute to the model-to-model spread.