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Abstract Extreme heat events are a threat to human health, productivity, and food supply, so understanding their drivers is critical to adaptation and resilience. Anticyclonic circulation and certain quasi-stationary Rossby wave patterns are well known to coincide with heatwaves, and soil moisture deficits amplify extreme heat in some regions. However, the relative roles of these two factors in causing heatwaves is still unclear. Here we use constructed circulation analogs to estimate the contribution of atmospheric circulation to heatwaves in the United States in the Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1) preindustrial control simulations. After accounting for the component of the heatwaves explained by circulation, we explore the relationship between the residual temperature anomalies and soil moisture. We find that circulation explains over 85% of heatwave temperature anomalies in the eastern and western United States but only 75%–85% in the central United States. In this region, there is a significant negative correlation between soil moisture the week before the heatwave and the strength of the heatwave that explains additional variance. Further, for the hottest central U.S. heatwaves, positive temperature anomalies and negative soil moisture anomalies are evident over a month before heatwave onset. These results provide evidence that positive land–atmosphere feedbacks may be amplifying heatwaves in the central United States and demonstrate the geographic heterogeneity in the relative importance of the land and atmosphere for heatwave development. Analysis of future circulation and soil moisture in the CESM1 Large Ensemble indicates that, over parts of the United States, both may be trending toward greater heatwave likelihood.
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Cascading Drought‐Heat Dynamics During the 2021 Southwest United States Heatwave
Abstract In June of 2021 the Southwest United States experienced a record‐breaking heatwave. This heatwave came at a time when the region was in severe drought. As drought alters the surface energy budget in ways that affect lower atmosphere temperature and circulations, it is possible that the combined drought‐heat event was a cascading climate hazard, in which preexisting drought exacerbated the heatwave. We apply satellite observation and numerical experiments with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to test for land‐atmosphere feedbacks during the heatwave consistent with drought influence. We find a modest positive drought‐heat effect, as WRF simulations that include the drought have marginally higher air temperatures than those that exclude the initial drought conditions, with more substantial effects in wetter, forested areas. Evidence of drought‐heat‐drought‐coupled feedbacks was similarly modest in our simulations, as accounting for drought preconditioning led to a small reduction in simulated precipitation in the region.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1854902
- PAR ID:
- 10446020
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Volume:
- 49
- Issue:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 0094-8276
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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