Great Lakes ice duration, winter severity index, and atmospheric teleconnections, 1973-2018

Session: Large Lakes’ Response to Climate: Past, Present, and Future (1)

Jia Wang, NOAA, GLERL, [email protected]
Ting-Yi Yang, School of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University, [email protected]
James Kessler, University of Michigan, [email protected]
Philip Chu, NOAA/GLERL, [email protected]
Brent Lofgren, NOAA/GLERL, [email protected]

Abstract

This study investigates interannual variability in ice duration and its related environmental parameters in response to the atmospheric teleconnection patterns (Bai et al., 2012; Assel et al., 1998; Assel et al., 2013). We conduct analyzes of the ice coverage records [freeze-up date, break-up date, ice duration, and annual maximum ice coverage (AMIC)], air temperature [accumulative freezing degree days (AFDD), winter severity index (WSI)], and atmospheric teleconnections [El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)]. In addition, we use scatter and linear/non-linear regression methods to determinate whether they have linear or quadratic (non-linear) relationship. The purpose of this report is to provide users with the Great Lakes environmental parameters in as simple as possible format of graphs and tables, and in-depth analyses that are easily digested and applied to resources management, projection, and planning.