Analysis of Climatic States and Atmospheric Circulation Patterns That Influence Québec Spring Streamflows

Abstract

Results from diagnostic analyses to understand the seasonal evolution of the large-scale climatic state responsible for the development and melt of the winter snowpack, and spring–early summer precipitation in the Churchill Falls region on the Québec-Labrador Peninsula, Canada, are presented in the context of the development of an empirical model for seasonal to annual streamflow forecasting, with a special emphasis on the May–July spring freshet. Teleconnection indices and gridded global measures of atmospheric circulation inferred from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis are used as climatic indicators. Composite and correlation analyses are applied to the climatic indicators conditioned on the spring streamflow for identification of potential predictors. Meridional and zonal atmospheric fluxes over the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans emanating from regionally persistent sea surface temperature/sea level pressure modes are identified as potential carriers of information. We speculate on the ocean-atmosphere and regional hydrologic mechanisms that may be involved in lending multiseasonal predictability to streamflows in the region.