Many recent studies reveal that sea ice concentration (SIC) in the eastern Arctic and snow cover extent (SCE) over central Eurasia in late autumn are potential predictors of the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). We used maximum covariance analysis (MCA) to investigate the links between autumn SIC in the Barents-Kara Seas (BK) and SCE over Eurasia (EUR) with winter (DJF) sea level pressur...

Annually laminated stalagmites can be used to construct a precise chronology, and variations in laminae thickness provide an annual growth-rate record that can be used as a proxy for past climate and environmental change. Here, we present and analyse the first composite speleothem annual growth-rate record based on five stalagmites from the same cave system in northwest Scotland, where precipit...

The authors build on their efforts to understand and predict coastal hurricane activity by developing statistical seasonal forecast models that can be used operationally. The modeling strategy uses May–June averaged values representing the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the Southern Oscillation index (SOI), and the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation to predict the probabilities of observing U...

The variability of winter precipitation over the northeastern United States and the corresponding teleconnections with five dominant large-scale modes of climate variability (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, AMO; North Atlantic Oscillation, NAO; Pacific-North American pattern, PNA; Pacific Decadal Oscillation, PDO; and El Niño–Southern Oscillation, ENSO) were systemically analyzed in this stu...

The dynamical mechanisms for the late-winter teleconnection between El NiñoSouthern Oscillation (ENSO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) are examined using output from two global climate models and various reanalysis datasets. During El Niño winters, the intensified transient disturbances along the equatorward shifted North Pacific storm track extend their influences farther downstream, ...

The persistence of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is studied using observations of the threedimensional vorticity budget in the Atlantic sector. Analysis of the relative vorticity tendency equation shows that convergence of eddy vorticity flux in the upper troposphere counteracts the effect of anomalous largescale divergence at the upper level. At low levels, the convergence associated wi...

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is modulating the Earth’s ozone shield such that the calculated anthropogenic total ozone decrease is enhanced over Europe whereas over the North Atlantic region it is reduced (for the last 30 years). Including the NAO in a statistical model suggests a more uniform chemical winter trend compared to the strong longitudinal variation reported earlier. At Arosa...

Droughts in the Southern Great Plains (SGP) have been attributed to the cold phase of El Niño–Southern Oscillation or La Niña. While La Niña events have been clearly linked to winter droughts, their link to summer droughts has remained unclear. We analyze the difference in precipitation between dry and nondry summers over the SGP during La Niña years. Anomalously high geopotential height and su...

The variability of North Atlantic tropical storm and hurricane tracks, and its relationship to climate variability, is explored. Tracks from the North Atlantic hurricane database for the period 1950–2007 are objectively separated into four groups using a cluster technique that has been previously applied to tropical cyclones in other ocean basins. The four clusters form zonal and meridional sep...

[1] The surface response to 11 year solar cycle variations is investigated by analyzing the long-term mean sea level pressure and sea surface temperature observations for the period 1870–2010. The analysis reveals a statistically significant 11 year solar signal over Europe, and the North Atlantic provided that the data are lagged by a few years. The delayed signal resembles the positive phase ...