News Finding: Mamalakis said the unexpected result was the discovery of persistent sea surface temperature and atmospheric pressure patterns in the southwestern Pacific Ocean that exhibited a strong correlation with precipitation in Southern California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.
Paper Finding: The emergence of a persistent correlation pattern in the southwestern Pacific (coined as the New Zealand Index, NZI) is robust for both SST and GPH; g the location and areal extent of NZI and Niño 3.4; h The selected climate divisions in SWUS (in color), for deriving the regionally averaged precipitation amount, based on their significant correlation with Niño 3.4 sponded to neutral ENSO conditions 28 .
News Context: "Our research also shows an amplification of this newly discovered teleconnection over the past four decades." Mamalakis said the unexpected result was the discovery of persistent sea surface temperature and atmospheric pressure patterns in the southwestern Pacific Ocean that exhibited a strong correlation with precipitation in Southern California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. "The discovery of an interhemispheric bridge that affects the winter U.S. jet stream holds the promise of improved precipitation predictability and drought forecasts."
Paper Context: Our work highlights the need to understand the dynamic nature of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system in a changing climate for improving future predictions of regional precipitation. The emergence of a persistent correlation pattern in the southwestern Pacific (coined as the New Zealand Index, NZI) is robust for both SST and GPH; g the location and areal extent of NZI and Niño 3.4; h The selected climate divisions in SWUS (in color), for deriving the regionally averaged precipitation amount, based on their significant correlation with Niño 3.4 sponded to neutral ENSO conditions 28 . More generally, ENSO as well as other climate modes (e.g., PDO, AMO) exhibit weak statistical relationships with precipitation amounts, and even lower predictability as lead time increases 28 .