Seasonal Prediction of Killing-Frost Frequency in South-Central Canada during the Cool/Overwintering-Crop Growing Season

Abstract

AbstractSeasonal killing-frost frequency (KFF) during the cool/overwintering-crop growing season is important for the Canadian agricultural sector to prepare and respond to such extreme agrometeorological events. On the basis of observed daily surface air temperature across Canada for 1957–2007, this study found that more than 86% of the total killing-frost events occur in April–May and exhibit consistent variability over south-central Canada, the country’s major agricultural region. To quantify the KFF year-to-year variations, a simple index is defined as the mean KFF of the 187 temperature stations in south-central Canada. The KFF variability is basically dominated by two components: the decadal component with a peak periodicity around 11 yr and the interannual component of 2.5–3.8 yr. A statistical method called partial least squares (PLS) regression is utilized to uncover principal sea surface temperature (SST) modes in the winter preceding the KFF anomalies. It is found that most of the leading SST modes resemble patterns of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and/or the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO). This indicates that ENSO and the PDO might be two dominant factors for the KFF variability. From a 41-yr training period (1957–97), a PLS seasonal prediction model is established, and 1-month-lead real-time forecasts are performed for the validation period of 1998–2007. A promising skill level is obtained. For the KFF variability, the prediction skill of the PLS model is comparable to or even better than the newly developed Canadian Seasonal to Interannual Prediction System (CanSIPS), which is a state-of-the-art global coupled dynamical system.