Noteworthy Cool-Season Extreme Weather Events over Central and Eastern North
America Associated with Strong Extratropical Cyclones
Ph.D. Dissertation Prospectus
Alicia M. Bentley
Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences
University at Albany, State University of New York
ABSTRACT
Extratropical cyclones (ECs), which form in response to a combination of
baroclinic, diabatic, and barotropic processes, play a major role in determining the dayto-day weather conditions in the midlatitudes during the cool season. Particularly strong
ECs forming over and traversing the densely populated regions of central and eastern
North America have the potential to lead to noteworthy cool-season extreme weather
events (EWEs), defined here as a category of high-impact weather events that are
societally disruptive, geographically widespread, exceptionally prolonged, and
climatologically infrequent. The opportunity to investigate the frequency, evolution, and
predictability of strong ECs leading to noteworthy cool-season EWEs over central and
eastern North America motivates this study.
A 1979–present climatology of strong ECs leading to noteworthy cool-season
EWEs over central and eastern North America will be constructing in the proposed study
to document the interannual and intraseasonal variability associated with their location
and frequency. The relative contributions of baroclinic, diabatic, and barotropic
processes will be quantified during the evolution of strong ECs included in the 1979–
present climatology in order to determine the combinations of processes most likely to
yield strong ECs. A cyclone-relative composite analysis will be performed on clusters of
strong ECs included in the 1979–present climatology that are governed by similar
combinations of baroclinic, diabatic, and barotropic processes in order to document the
structure, motion, and evolution of the most prominent upper- and lower-tropospheric
features associated with their formation. The relationship between the predictability of
strong ECs included in the climatology and the combinations of baroclinic, diabatic, and
barotropic processes associated with their formation will also be explored.