Data · dataset · 2026
Circulation and soil moisture contributions to heatwaves in the United States
Listed in National Center for Atmospheric Research
Extreme heat events are a threat to human health, productivity, and food supply, so understanding their drivers is critical to adaptation and resilience.
Description
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.
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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.
Links
Get the data
- Publisher page n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7hx1hjv ↗
documentation · download · from data ucar edu
Where it is published
- data.ucar.edu /dataset/circulation-and-soil-moisture-contributions-to-heatwav… ↗
National Center for Atmospheric Research dataset page
landing page · from data ucar edu
Catalogue records · 1
- CKAN API data.ucar.edu/api/3/action/package_show?id=83d78ecf-2166-4b8b-86cc-a315b44ad… ↗
metadata API · from data ucar edu
Topics
- From keywords
- Earth & Environmental Science · Ocean & Atmospheric Science
- Inferred from text
- Physical geography and environmental geoscience 72%
Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Center for Atmospheric Research | 83d78ecf-2166-4b8b-86cc-a315b44ad33f | 12 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| concepts[field].anzsrc:group:3709 | enrichment · data ucar edu | taxonomy-embedding@1.1.0 | title+keywords+description (72%) |
| concepts[field].local:field:earth-environmental | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:ocean-atmospheric | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| created_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /notes |
| publication_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /title |
| updated_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 |