El Nino Distribution (IMAGE)

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

El Nino Distribution

Caption

Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a novel analytical method for understanding why and when two extremes, such as heat and drought, happen simultaneously. The method gives a visual representation of the relationships in the form of color-coded joint distribution maps, making it easy to see what variable is driving changes. Using the technique on Northern California winters, they found that El Nino/La Nina winters primarily force changes in temperature (b), and not precipitation (a). Panel (c) shows the conditional joint distribution of temperature and precipitation, with yellow representing El Nino years and purple La Nina.

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Berkeley Lab

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