Influence of ENSO on North American subseasonal surface air temperature variability

Martineau, Patrick; Nakamura, Hisashi; Kosaka, Yu

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-395-2021

Articles | Volume 2, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-395-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-395-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 2, issue 2

Research article

|

28 Apr 2021

Research article |

| 28 Apr 2021

Influence of ENSO on North American subseasonal surface air temperature variability

Patrick Martineau, Hisashi Nakamura, and Yu Kosaka

Data sets

JRA-55: Japanese 55-year Reanalysis, Daily 3-Hourly and 6-Hourly Data Japan Meteorological Agency https://doi.org/10.5065/D6HH6H41

Hadley Centre Global Sea Ice and Sea Surface Temperature (HadISST) Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research/Met Office/Ministry of Defence/United Kingdom https://doi.org/10.5065/XMYE-AN84

Short summary

To better understand the factors that impact the weather in North America, this study explores the influence of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation on wintertime surface air temperature variability using reanalysis data. Results show that La Niña enhances subseasonal variability over western North America by amplifying the baroclinic conversion of energy from the winter-mean circulation to subseasonal eddies. Changes in the structural properties of eddies are crucial for this amplification.