Increasing Northern Hemisphere water deficit

Climatic Change
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Abstract

A monthly water-balance model is used with CRUTS3.1 gridded monthly precipitation and potential evapotranspiration (PET) data to examine changes in global water deficit (PET minus actual evapotranspiration) for the Northern Hemisphere (NH) for the years 1905 through 2009. Results show that NH deficit increased dramatically near the year 2000 during both the cool (October through March) and warm (April through September) seasons. The increase in water deficit near 2000 coincides with a substantial increase in NH temperature and PET. The most pronounced increases in deficit occurred for the latitudinal band from 0 to 40°N. These results indicate that global warming has increased the water deficit in the NH and that the increase since 2000 is unprecedented for the 1905 through 2009 period. Additionally, coincident with the increase in deficit near 2000, mean NH runoff also increased due to increases in P. We explain the apparent contradiction of concurrent increases in deficit and increases in runoff.
Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Increasing Northern Hemisphere water deficit
Series title Climatic Change
DOI 10.1007/s10584-015-1419-x
Volume 132
Issue 2
Year Published 2015
Language English
Publisher SpringerLink
Contributing office(s) National Research Program - Central Branch
Description 13 p.
First page 237
Last page 249
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