Atmospheric Ridging and Climate Change Over Western North America
Atmospheric ridges are broadly defined as large areas of anomalously high atmospheric pressure or geopotential height. Ridges are associated with a number of weather and climate impacts, especially anomalously warm and dry conditions. This work aims to understand how and why the frequency and character of ridges will change as a result of continued global warming.
Publications:
Loikith, P. C., D. Singh, and G. Taylor, 2022: Projected Changes in Atmospheric Ridges Over the Pacific-North American Region Using CMIP6 Models. In press for J. Climate.
Presentations:
Future Projections of Atmospheric Ridging and Associated Temperature and Precipitation Anomalies over the Pacific–North American Region, Paul C. Loikith, Deepti Singh, and Graham Taylor. Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society, Virtual Meeting, January 2022 (virtual talk).
The Effect of Climate Change on Atmospheric Ridging over the Pacific Northwest, Paul C. Loikith, Deepti Singh, Justin Wettstein, and Graham Taylor. 11th Northwest Climate Conference (virtual), April, 2021 (talk).
Evaluating Springtime Atmospheric Ridging Over the Pacific Northwest in the HadAM3p Ensemble. Ganelao Chao, Paul C. Loikith, Arielle Catalano, Ellen Koukel, and David E. Rupp. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, December, 2019 (poster).
Characteristics of Springtime Atmospheric Ridging Over the Pacific Northwest. Ellen Koukel, Paul C. Loikith, Arielle Catalano, Ganelao Chao, Kavita Heyn, Kristin Anderson, and Benjamin Beal. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, December, 2019 (poster).
Evaluating springtime atmospheric ridging over the Pacific Northwest in the HadAM3p large ensemble, Ganelao Chao, Paul C. Loikith, Arielle J. Catalano, Ellen Koukel. Northwest Climate Conference, Portland, Oregon, October, 2019 (poster).
Characteristics of springtime atmospheric ridging over the Pacific Northwest, Ellen Koukel, Paul C. Loikith, Arielle J. Catalano, Kavita Heyn, Kristin Anderson, and Benjamin Beal. Northwest Climate Conference, Portland, Oregon, October, 2019 (poster).
Depiction of the ridge associated with the June 2021 record shattering heatwave over the Pacific Northwest. 500 hPa geopotential height is shaded and zonal height anomalies are contoured. Figure from Loikith et al. 2022.
Seasonal climatologies of ridge day frequency over western North America for (left) MERRA2 reanalysis, (middle) the CMIP6 multi-model ensemble, and (right) the difference between the two. Figure from Loikith et al. 2022.
(left) Projections from the CMIP6 models of future ridge day frequency for the years 2071-2100 under the most extreme emissions scenario. (right) The change in ridge day frequency between the projected 2071-2100 future period and the 1985-2014 historical period. Stippling indicates where at least half of the models agree on the sign of significant change.