Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Effects of Temperature Anomalies on the Palmer
Drought Severity Index in the Central United States
Qi Hu and Gary D. Willson
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to improve our understanding
of temperature and precipitation effects on the Palmer Drought Severity Index
(PDSI). Both theoretical and observational analyses were applied to separate
and compare temperature and precipitation effects on PDSI. The results showed
that because of the dependence of PDSI on the 'climatologically appropriate
rainfall', which is a function of time and varies with surface air temperature,
the PDSI can be equally affected by temperature and precipitation, when both
have similar magnitudes of anomalies. Calculations using observational data
further illustrated the temperature influence on PDSI in different climate regions
in the central United States. The temperature effect on PDSI complicates the
usage of the index in interpreting precipitation anomalies and its application
in inferring precipitation variations, particularly from reconstructed PDSI.
Key Words: central United States; interpreting reconstructed
PDSI; observation; Palmer Drought Severity Index; precipitation; temperature;
theoretical analysis
This resource is based on the following source (Northern Prairie Publication
1118):
Hu, Qi, and Gary D. Willson. 2000. Effects of temperature anomalies
on the Palmer Drought Severity Index in the central United States.
International Journal of Climatology 20:1899-1911.
This resource should be cited as:
Hu, Qi, and Gary D. Willson. 2000. Effects of temperature anomalies
on the Palmer Drought Severity Index in the central United States.
International Journal of Climatology 20:1899-1911. Jamestown,
ND: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Online.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/habitat/tempanom/index.htm
(Version 20AUG2001).
Table of Contents
Figures
- Figure 1 -- The geographical location of the
study areas.
- Figure 2 -- Response of Z-index to temperature
and precipitation perturbations for June in Region 2.
- Figure 3 -- Correlations of PDSI versus regional
average precipitation, temperature and correlation of regional average precipitation
versus temperature for Region 1.
- Figure 4 -- Correlations of PDSI versus regional
average precipitation, temperature and correlation of regional average precipitation
versus temperature for Region 2.
- Figure 5 -- Variations of monthly precipitation
anomaly, temperature anomaly and corresponding PDSI for 1977-1979 at Auburn,
NE.
- Figure 6 -- Variations of July normalized precipitation,
temperature and PDSI for Region 1.
Qi Hu, School of Natural Resource Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
Lincoln, NE, USA
Correspondence to: School of Natural Resource Sciences, 237 L.W. Chase
Hall, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Lincoln, NE 68583-0728, USA; e-mail:
qhu2@unl.edu.
Gary D. Willson, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, USGS,
and Department of Soil and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia,
Columbia, MO, USA
Downloading Instructions
-- Instructions on downloading and extracting files from this site.
tempanom.zip
(127K) -- Effects of Temperature Anomalies on the Palmer Drought Severity
Index in the Central United States
Installation: Extract all files and open
index.htm in a web browser.
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey