Meteorological conditions during heat waves and droughts in the United States Great Plains

Abstract

Summertime droughts and/or heat waves in the Kansas City area and their associated large-scale circulation patterns and land-surface moisture conditions are investigated, using climatological monthly mean surface data, rawinsonde data, Palmer drought severity indices, gridded monthly mean sea-level pressure data, and gridded 50 mb height data. Surface station data include monthly mean surface pressure, maximum/minimum temperature, temperature range, monthly total precipitation, dewpoint and relative humidity. Not all the hot summer months in the record at Kansas City appear to have been associated with drought, in some cases, anomalous circulation patterns appear to have been instrumental in producing extended periods of hot weather. Hot months at Kansas City are virtually always characterized by upper level anticyclones over the central US. -from Authors