Data from: Antecedent Soil Moisture Conditions Determine Land-Atmosphere Coupling Drought Risk in the Northeastern United States

Abstract

Strengthened land-atmosphere coupling in the northeastern United States (NEUS), accompanied by a positive soil moisture-rainfall feedback, may lead to more short-term or flash droughts. Coupling between the land and atmosphere emerges when low soil moisture values limit surface latent heat flux, or evapotranspiration, so that a majority of absorbed solar radiation is emitted from the surface as sensible heat. In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) was run with four prescribed soil moisture levels across seven years to elucidate the strength of land-atmosphere coupling under potential, future soil moisture states in the NEUS. Under drier soil moisture conditions, land-atmosphere coupling strengthens, and a positive soil moisture-precipitation feedback develops in all years despite differences in synoptic influx of moisture. As snowpack decreases and evaporative demand increases, antecedent soil moisture conditions may become drier in future summers over the NEUS, resulting in the more frequent development of flash droughts. This dataset supports the findings of this publication.