The Influence of CO2 Forcing on North American Monsoon Moisture Surges

Widespread multiday convective bursts in the southwestern United States during the North American monsoon are often triggered by Gulf of California moisture surges (GoC surges). However, how GoC surges, and the amount and intensity of associated precipitation, will change in response to CO2-induced warming remains little known, not least because the most widely available climate models do not currently resolve the relevant mesoscale dynamics because of their coarse resolution (100 km or more). In this study, a 50-km-resolution global coupled model is used to address this question. It is found that the mean number of GoC surge events remains unchanged under CO2 doubling, but intermediate-to-high intensity surge-related precipitation tends to become less frequent, thus reducing the mean summertime rainfall. Low-level moisture fluxes associated with GoC surges as well as their convergence over land to the east of the GoC intensify, but the increases in low-level moisture are not matched by the larger increments in the near-surface saturation specific humidity because of amplified land warming. This results in a more unsaturated low-level atmospheric environment that disfavors moist convection. These thermodynamic changes are accompanied by dynamic changes that are also detrimental to convective activity, with the midlevel monsoonal ridge projected to expand and move to the west of its present-day climatological maximum. Despite the overall reduction in precipitation, the frequency of very intense, localized daily surge-related precipitation in Arizona and surrounding areas is projected to increase with increased precipitable water.

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