Analysis of the joint link between extreme temperatures, precipitation and climate indices in winter in the three hydroclimate regions of southern Quebec

Abstract

We analyze the relationship between four climate variables (maximum and minimum extreme temperatures, rainfall and snowfall) measured in winter (December to March) at 17 stations from 1950 to 2000 in the three hydroclimate regions of southern Quebec, and six seasonal climate indices using canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and the copula method. This analysis yielded these major results: (1) extreme temperatures are not correlated with the amount of winter rain or snow in southern Quebec; (2) winter seasonal climate indices show better correlations with climate variables than do fall climate indices; (3) winter extreme temperatures are best correlated (positive correlation) with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) in the eastern region, but show a negative correlation with the Arctic Oscillation (AO) in the southwestern region; (4) the total amount of winter snow is best correlated (negative correlation) with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) in the three hydroclimate regions; (5) the total amount of winter rain is best (negatively) correlated with PDO in the eastern region, but shows a positive correlation with AO in the southeast region. Finally, the copula method revealed very little change in the dependence between climate indices and climate variables in the three hydroclimate regions.