Abstract
The low-frequency variability of precipitation in the Southeast United States is described using historical records exceeding 100 years for 9 stations. Four out of the nine historical stations belong to the climate regime with a dominant winter precipitation. Seasonal precipitation indices were computed by dividing the rainfall total for each season by the annual amount. This step allowed a direct comparison between winter and the rest of the year’s precipitation characteristics without the impact of the absolute annual amount. Abnormally wet winters are evident during the earliest part of the record prior to 1860 and at the end of the nineteenth century for the majority of stations inside the core high winter precipitation region. The 1950 decade suggests a period of dry winters. The strongest signal in temporal variability of the winter-to-spring precipitation ratio occurred around 1977 for the entire region west of Appalachians.
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Mojzisek, J., Mock, C.J. (2009). Historical Changes to the Tennessee Precipitation Regime. In: Dupigny-Giroux, LA., Mock, C. (eds) Historical Climate Variability and Impacts in North America. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2828-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2828-0_2
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