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On the relationship of regional meteorological drought with SOI and NAO over southwest Iran

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Abstract

A fuzzy hierarchical clustering technique using the pairwise similarity matrix is employed to find the homogenous climate subregions over southwest Iran, based on the similarity of meteorological drought characteristics (i.e., duration, intensity, onset, and ending dates). The representative subregions are recognized for different rainy seasons; for each, the regional rainfall anomalies are computed. To find appropriate drought predictors, the lag relationships of regional rainfall with seasonal Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) are examined using a conditional probability approach. The results suggest a significant negative correlation between autumn rainfall and June–August SOI. The NAO is also negatively correlated with autumn rainfall such that it is least likely for an extreme autumn drought to occur when June–August NAO is negative. A spring drought is preceded by an October–December NAO greater than 0.5. However, winter droughts do not appear to be lag-correlated with either SOI or NAO. In addition to the findings for droughts, these indices also emerged having considerable influence on wet seasons. A wet autumn tends to occur when either May–July SOI is less than −0.5 or June–August NAO is less than about −0.3. It is also apparent that the extreme wet springs are absent when October–December NAO is positive. This season is influenced most by NAO in both dry and wet spells. However, similar to droughts, the wet winter seasons are not found to be associated with either SOI or NAO.

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Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank the Meteorological Organization and the Water Resources Management Company of Iran for providing the precipitation data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Meteorology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 32306, USA

    Amin K. Dezfuli

  2. School of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Karamouz

  3. School of Soil and Water Engineering, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

    Shahab Araghinejad

Authors
  1. Amin K. Dezfuli
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  2. Mohammad Karamouz
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  3. Shahab Araghinejad
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Correspondence to Amin K. Dezfuli.

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Dezfuli, A.K., Karamouz, M. & Araghinejad, S. On the relationship of regional meteorological drought with SOI and NAO over southwest Iran. Theor Appl Climatol 100, 57–66 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-009-0157-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-009-0157-2

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