The Evolution, Propagation, and Spread of Flash Drought in the Central United States During 2012

Authors

Jeffrey B. Basara, University of OklahomaFollow
Jordan I. Christian, University of Oklahoma
Ryann A. Wakefield, University of Oklahoma
Jason A. Otkin, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Eric H. Hunt, Atmospheric and Environmental ResearchFollow
David P. Brown, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, El Reno, Oklahoma

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2019

Citation

Environmental Research Letters (2019) 14(8): 084025

RS-4802

doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab2cc0

Supplemental materials are available at https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2cc0

Comments

Open access

License: CC BY 3.0

Abstract

During 2012, flash drought developed and subsequently expanded across large areas of the Central United States (US) with severe impacts to overall water resources and warm-season agricultural production. Recent efforts have yielded a methodology to detect and quantify flash drought occurrence and rate of intensification from climatological datasets via the standardized evaporative stress ratio (SESR). This study utilizes the North American Regional Reanalysis and applied the SESR methodology to quantify the spatial and temporal development and expansion of flash drought conditions during 2012. Critical results include the identification of the flash drought epicenter and subsequent spread of flash drought conditions radially outward with varying rates of intensification. Further, a comparison of the SESR analyses with surface-atmosphere coupling metrics demonstrated that a hostile environment developed across the region, which limited the formation of deep atmospheric convection, exacerbated evaporative stress, and perpetuated flash drought development and enhanced its radial spread across the Central US.