Start
April 28, 2020 - 2:00 pm
End
April 28, 2020 - 3:00 pm
Categories
Weather and Climate SystemsNote: As part of the Spring 2020 the online framework, BUL seminars are offered live only to enrolled students and the speaker’s adviser(s) and committee. The live sessions are recorded and made available via the seminar’s mailing list and the BUL website.
Climatological Analysis of Flash Drought Criteria
Stuart Edris – M.S. Student, School of Meteorology
RECORDING AVAILABLE HERE: https://youtu.be/HYYq-z5zEno
Questions can be directed to the speaker at sgedris@ou.edu
Abstract:
Flash droughts are recently recognized phenomena involving the rapid intensification of drought (over ∼ 1 month). The rapidly drying conditions that describe flash droughts can quickly desiccate the landscape, creating large agricultural and environmental impacts. Flash droughts can also help a region transition into normal drought and, sometimes, heat wave conditions. To this end, recent focus has been placed on being able to accurately classify and identify flash drought events. In the past year, a method was created to do this that would work on any gridded dataset. This method uses the standardized evaporative stress ratio (SESR) to determine several criteria that look for rapid drying and general drought conditions. We will examine the climatology of each criterion used in this method, using a 38-year dataset from the NARR model. In addition, we will split these criteria into drought and rapid intensification components to determine which plays a more prominent role in the development of flash droughts.