Article,
A surface wind extremes ( ” Wind Lulls” and ” Wind Blows”) climatology for central North America and adjoining oceans (1979-2012)
J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., (Jan 12, 2015)
DOI: 10.1175/jamc-d-14-0009.1
Abstract
AbstractThis study explores long-term deviations from wind averages, specifically near the surface across central North America and adjoining oceans (25°N-50°N, 60°W-130°W) for 1979 to 2012 (408 months) by utilizing the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) 10-meter wind climate datasets. We identified regions where periods of anomalous wind speeds were observed (i.e., one standard deviation below/above both the long-term mean annual and mean monthly wind speeds at each gridpoint). We classify these two climate extremes as ?Wind Lulls? (WLs) or ?Wind Blows? (WBs), respectively. Major findings for the North American study domain indicate: 1) mean annual wind speeds range from one to three m/s (Intermontane West) to over seven m/s (offshore of east and west coasts), 2) mean duration for WLs (WBs) are high for much of the southeastern U.S. (open waters of the North Atlantic Ocean), 3) historically, the longest WLs /WBs episodes for majority of locations have not exceeded five months, 4) WLs (WBs) are most common during June (October) for the upper Midwest, 5) WLs are least frequent over the Southwest U.S. during the North American Monsoon, and 6) no significant anomalous wind trends exists over land or sea.
