Seasonal Variations in Climate in the Contiguous USA

Keywords: climate, USA, temperature, PDSI
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Climate varies spatially and temporally, and both mechanisms of variation develop simultaneously, but there is still an ability to group and categorize similar behavior in the form of regions and regimes. This information is crucial to our understanding of climate in a broadened context and in the era of climate change. Years of climate data can be used to differentiate different climate regions using Principal Component Analysis on loadings for individual climate divisions across the USA, and these can be assessed with regime shift to indicate when different patterns occur. Variables explored include the PDSI and temperature, and these are sourced from the NOAA Monthly U.S. Climate Divisional Database. Regions are only within the contiguous United States of America and addressed according to separate seasons, differentiated by months. This work is intended to build upon the previous research of Dr. Michael Davis by processing more recent data.