Precipitation Deficit Flash Droughts over the United States

AbstractFlash drought refers to relatively short periods of warm surface temperature and anomalously low and rapid decreasing soil moisture (SM). Based on the physical mechanisms associated with flash droughts, these events are classified into two categories: heat wave and precipitation P deficit flash droughts. In previous work, the authors have defined heat wave flash droughts as resulting from the confluence of severe warm air temperature Tair, which increases evapotranspiration (ET), and anomalously low and decreasing SM. Here, a second type of flash drought caused by precipitation deficits is explored. The authors term these events P-deficit flash droughts, which they associate with lack of P. Precipitation deficits cause ET to decrease and temperature to increase. The P-deficit flash droughts are analyzed based on observations of P, Tair, and SM and ET reconstructed using land surface models for the period 1916–2013. The authors find that P-deficit flash droughts are more common than heat wave flash...

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