Atmospheric Rivers and Their Relationship to Precipitation in the Northeastern United States

Atmospheric Rivers (ARs) have been extensively studied in many regions of the world such as the west coast of the United States, western Europe, and South Africa. AR-related precipitation at these locales has been shown to influence drought endings, rainfall extremes, and flooding. However, little research has explored ARs in the northeastern United States and their associated impacts. Thus, this study aims to examine the impacts that ARs have on precipitation in the northeast United States. Thirteen well-spaced weather stations distributed across the northeast were selected and a thirty-year precipitation record was obtained for each. This data was compared to a 30-year AR climatology to examine the association between ARs and precipitation. Throughout the entire domain, 45–60% of precipitation days were found to be associated with an AR, and 60–80% of liquid precipitation accumulation was found to be associated with an AR. Precipitation days were more likely to be associated with an AR as location gained proximity to the North Atlantic coast, while inland locations had more precipitation days with no association to an AR. This relationship reflects the fact that ARs most frequently occur along the coastal locations of the northeast. Further, ARs may have less influence on inland precipitation in the northeast due to topographic features such as large lakes (i.e., lake-effect snow).