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Abstract Wintertime cold air outbreaks (CAOs) in the Great Plains of the United States have significant socioeconomic, environmental, and infrastructural impacts; the events of December 1983 and February 2021 are key examples of this. Previous studies have investigated CAOs in other parts of North America, particularly the eastern United States, but the development of CAOs in the Great Plains and their potential subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) predictability have yet to be assessed. This study first identifies 37 large-scale CAOs in the Great Plains between 1950 and 2021, before examining their characteristics, evolution, and driving mechanisms. These events occur under two dominant weather regimes at event onset: one set associated with anomalous ridging over Alaska and the other set associated with anomalous pan-Arctic ridging. Alaskan ridge CAOs evolve quickly (i.e., on synoptic time scales) and involve stratospheric wave reflection. Conversely, Arctic high CAOs are preceded by weak stratospheric polar vortex conditions several weeks prior to the event. Both categories of CAOs feature anomalous upward wave activity flux from Siberia, with downward wave activity flux over Canada seen only in the Alaskan ridge CAOs. The rapid development of the Alaskan ridge CAOs, also linked with a North Pacific wave train and anomalous wave activity flux from the central Pacific, suggests that these events could be forced by tropical modes of variability. These findings present evidence that different forcing mechanisms, with contrasting time scales, may produce distinct sources of predictability for these CAOs on the S2S time scale.
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The Role of Wave Breaking in the Development and Subseasonal Forecasts of the February 2021 Great Plains Cold Air Outbreak
Abstract The February 2021 cold air outbreak (CAO) was a high‐impact event in the South‐Central Plains of the United States. This study examines important precursors to the event that likely impacted its predictability in subseasonal forecasts. We use reanalysis to show that the CAO was facilitated by two distinct wave breaks—an East Siberian Sea anticyclonic wave break and a Labrador Sea cyclonic wave break. We also use European Center for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts and National Center for Environmental Prediction subseasonal‐to‐seasonal models to investigate the impact of the wave breaks on the forecast skill of the event at a ∼2–3 weeks lead time. Ensemble members successfully simulating these features produce more negative temperature anomalies across the Great Plains, corresponding to better positioning of anomalous ridging. These results demonstrate that successfully simulating persistent anticyclones can improve central US extreme cold forecasts at long leads.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1946093
- PAR ID:
- 10380075
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Volume:
- 49
- Issue:
- 21
- ISSN:
- 0094-8276
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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