Climatic influences on streamflow variability: A comparison between southeastern Australia and southeastern United States of America

Abstract

Differences in runoff and rainfall variability between southeastern Australia and southeastern United States have been examined, using various standard techniques such as principal component and spectral analyses, and examination of the quick and base flow components of runoff. It is shown that the higher runoff variability in Australia can be partly explained by the large‐scale circulation and rainfall patterns associated with the Southern Oscillation which are unlike those in the southeastern United States. Whereas the Southern Oscillation signal is easily detectible in the southeast Australian rainfall and runoff data, it is, with the exception of several small areas, absent in the southeastern United States data. In the case of this particular comparison, the differences in runoff variability between the two selected regions were found to be largest in winter and spring months and smallest in summer.