Yeo et al. (2025) Trends and Climate Sensitivity of Precipitation Correlation Distances Across the Contiguous U.S.

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-10-07
• Authors: A. J. Yeo, Adrienne Marshall, Eric J. Anderson
• DOI: 10.1029/2025gl116815

Research Groups

Researchers studying precipitation patterns across the contiguous United States.

Short Summary

This study quantifies changes in the length scale of seasonal precipitation correlations across the contiguous United States from 1950 to 2019, revealing significant decreases in summer precipitation correlation distance in several regions, which indicates increased spatial variability.

Objective

• To systematically evaluate the spatial and temporal variability and potential changes in the length scale of seasonal precipitation autocorrelations across the contiguous United States.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Contiguous United States
• Temporal Scale: 1950 to 2019 (70-year period), daily values, seasonal analysis

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Statistical analysis of precipitation correlation distance (PCD).
• Data sources: Daily precipitation values from 19,786 precipitation gauges.

Main Results

• Annual precipitation correlation distance (PCD) is shorter in the western U.S. compared to the eastern U.S.
• PCD is shorter in summer than in winter.
• In summer, PCD significantly decreased by 0.37 km/yr over the 70-year study period in the Northwest, Northern Rockies and Plains, and Upper Midwest regions.
• Declines in PCD were smaller in other seasons.
• PCD exhibited spatially variable climate dependencies.
• Decreases in PCD suggest an increase in seasonal precipitation spatial variability and a shift toward more convective-dominated precipitation.

Contributions

• Provides a systematic and quantitative evaluation of changes in seasonal precipitation autocorrelation length scales across the contiguous U.S. over a 70-year period.
• Identifies specific regions and seasons experiencing significant decreases in precipitation correlation distance.
• Highlights the implications of these changes for precipitation interpolation exercises in sparsely gauged areas and suggests a shift in precipitation characteristics.

Funding

Not specified in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Yeo2025Trends,
  author = {Yeo, A. J. and Marshall, Adrienne and Anderson, Eric J.},
  title = {Trends and Climate Sensitivity of Precipitation Correlation Distances Across the Contiguous U.S.},
  journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1029/2025gl116815},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl116815}
}