Thursday, June 11, 2015

Central U.S. Drought Vanishes; California's Expands (Or: What the Hell Is Happening In the Atlantic?)

First up, Sea Surface Temperature anomalies via Unisys Weather:

http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sst_anom.gif
Hot Pacific/Cold Atlantic = Drier British Isles, Wetter U.S.

From a genius researcher, Gregory McCabe in the seminal 2004 paper "Pacific and Atlantic Ocean influences on multidecadal drought frequency in the United States":
http://www.pnas.org/content/101/12/4136/F5.large.jpg
Fig. 5.
Drought frequency (in percent of years) for positive and negative regimes of the PDO and AMO. (A) Positive PDO, negative AMO. (B) Negative PDO, negative AMO. (C) Positive PDO, positive AMO. (D) Negative PDO, positive AMO.

Next, the U.S. Drought Monitor map released this morning:
Current U.S. Drought Monitor

And finally, Sacramento's Capitol Public Radio:

'Extreme Drought' Expands In California
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor report shows that conditions worsened in two California counties in the midst of a fourth year of drought.
The report released Thursday, June 11, shows the moisture from the remnants of Pacific Hurricane Andres "triggered showers and thunderstorms in the Four Corners region ... and with much of the region experiencing an unseasonably cool May and wet spring, some impacts have been observed."
Those "visible impacts" meant a decrease in drought for "northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, southwestern Colorado, northwestern Utah, northeastern Nevada and south-central Idaho, and a small area of west-central Nevada."...MORE
Previously:
April 15, 2015
"A 1,000 Mile Stretch Of The Pacific Ocean Has Heated Up Several Degrees And Scientists Don’t Know Why"
May 28, 2015
"Active Atlantic Hurricane Period That Began in 1995 May be Over: NOAA"
May 28
An Extremely Important Change In A Major Climate Input
...For what this all means, besides hurricanes, take drought in North America as just one area of study. It's going to get wetter:
 May 31, 2015
"Global climate on verge of multi-decadal change"