Climatological Annual Cycle of the Lagrangian Analysis Components for WNA

(a) Climatological annual (evaporation (E) - precipitation (P) > 0) values integrated backward in time over 10 days for the RR region (mm/day). The blue line delimits the moisture sources areas selected using the 95th percentile of the (E-P) > 0 values (i.e., 0.07 mm/day) and (b) Schematic representation of the main moisture sources for the RR during 1980–2015: American Pacific Coast (APC), North Pacific Ocean (NPO), terrestrial moisture sources surrounding the region (TER), and itself (WNA-AR5).

Left-hand column: The climatological annual cycle of: moisture uptake (E - P > 0) integrated over the sources obtained from backward analysis for the RR (top), and moisture contribution (E - P < 0) integrated from the sources to RR estimated through the forward analysis (bottom). Scale in mm/day.

Right-hand column: The percentage of: moisture uptake over the sources obtained for the RR (top), and moisture supply from the source to the RR (bottom).

Climatological annual (evaporation (E) - precipitation (P) < 0) values integrated forward in time over 10 days for the RR region (mm/day). The red line delimits the moisture sink area selected using the 99th percentile of the (E-P) < 0 values (i.e., -0.19 mm/day), and (b) Schematic representation of the terrestrial moisture sink (TER) from each RR.

The climatological annual cycle of precipitation (blue line) and moisture supply (grey line) for RR sinks. Scale in mm/day.