Interannual variability of the midsummer drought in Central America  and the connection with sea surface temperatures

Maldonado, Tito; Rutgersson, Anna; Alfaro, Eric; Amador, Jorge; Claremar, Björn

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-42-35-2016

Articles | Volume 42

https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-42-35-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-42-35-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 42

26 Apr 2016

| 26 Apr 2016

Interannual variability of the midsummer drought in Central America and the connection with sea surface temperatures

Tito Maldonado, Anna Rutgersson, Eric Alfaro, Jorge Amador, and Björn Claremar

Data sets

NCEP NINO34 from Indices nino International Research Institute for Climate and Society IRI, Earth Institute, Columbia University http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/SOURCES/.Indices/.nino/.NCEP/.NINO34/

Modoki ENSO Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) http://www.jamstec.go.jp/frcgc/research/d1/iod/enmodoki_home_s.html.en

PSD Climate and Weather Data Earth System Research Laboratory, Physical Science Division http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/climateindices/list/

Short summary

We studied the relationship between the midsummer drought (MSD) in Central America, and the sea surface temperatures (SST) of the neighbouring ocean in interannual scales. Besides, the motivation of this study is also to provide a systematic method for forecasting the MSD period. We found that the intensity and the magnitude of the MSD shown a strong association with the contrast in the surface temperatures between the eastern tropical Pacific, and the tropical north Atlantic.