Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Wood, Kimberly M.

Committee Member

Mercer, Andrew E.

Committee Member

Rodgers, John C. III

Date of Degree

5-12-2023

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Professional Meteorology/Climatology

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Geosciences

Abstract

San Salvador Island is a small Bahamian island located in the subtropics just north of the Tropic of Cancer. Due to its subtropical location, the island is influenced by both mid-latitude and tropical weather patterns. These weather patterns vary in scale from localized convective uplift to synoptic-scale systems. This study compares satellite-derived estimates of precipitation and rain gauge observations from June 2019 through September 2021 to evaluate the relationship between the two datasets. This study then uses the satellite-derived estimates of precipitation over a 20-year period to quantify annual and seasonal variability in precipitation on San Salvador. Corroborating past research, the island exhibits a bimodal pattern of precipitation during the year, but rainfall is highly variable across seasons and between years. Atmospheric fields from a reanalysis dataset indicate the North Atlantic subtropical high influences summertime rainfall, but a relationship between upper-level wind patterns and rainfall is less clear.

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