NOAA researchers contribute to new study on winter wet–dry weather patterns in California

Santa Ana winds spurred fires in Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, California, in December 2017. Credit: NOAA

Researchers Alexander Gershunov and Thomas Corringham from the California-Nevada Climate Applications Program (CNAP), a NOAA RISA team, recently contributed to an article published in the journal of Climate Dynamics. In the article titled “Winter wet–dry weather patterns driving atmospheric rivers and Santa Ana winds provide evidence for increasing wildfire hazard in California” the authors show that winter weather variability in California, including the occurrence of extreme and impactful events, is linked to four atmospheric circulation regimes over the North Pacific Ocean previously named and identified as the “NP4 modes”. These modes come in and out of phase with each other during the season, resulting in distinct weather patterns that recur throughout the historical record.

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