Validating ENSO teleconnections in the South-East US

This study is aimed at validating the response of the rainfall and streamflow over the South-East US to ENSO teleconnections. Two sets of observations, (Climate Research Unit [CRU] and Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model [PRISM]) serves as a basis for the validation and two atmospheric reanalysis (20th Century Reanalysis [20CR] and Florida Climate Institute-Florida State University Land-Atmosphere Regional Reanalysis version 1.0 [FLAReS1.0]) are used spanning a century. Streamflows for 28 watersheds in the SEUS are simulated by three lumped hydrological models. The boreal winter season is chosen for study as it has the strongest influence on the SEUS. Irrespective of the datasets, the teleconnections of the ENSO in the SEUS is well captured. However, the teleconnections in the streamflows is significant in only some of the watersheds in the Florida, southern Alabama, and southern Georgia. The teleconnections of the ENSO in the SEUS is modulated by the long term decadal modes of the climate like the Atlantic-multidecadal oscillation (AMO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). The positive phase of the AMO shift the pattern northwards decreasing the influence over Florida and enhancing it over the northern watersheds. The PDO seems to have more diverse response on the ENSO teleconnections across the four datasets.