Prevlous investigations have suggested relationships among weather, stream flow and water chemistry.Presumably, acid rain liberates soil sulfates during periods of heavy precipitation.simultaneously raising stream levels and acidity.This paper expands on those works by reporting a synoptic climatology of stream flow and stream-sulfate concentrations.Separate manual analyses of high-discharge and high stream-sulfate events in central Pennsylvania.USA, demonstrate that nearly all are associated with lows forming in the lee of the Rocky Mountains, tracking from southwest to northeast, and passing to the northwest of the study area.These lows develop into 2 distinct circulation types: transient cyclonic storms in winter and spring, and stationary fronts in summer and fall.Objective analyses of composite daily pressure-patterns associated with elevated stream flow and stream-sulfate concentrat~ons show sequences similar to those that transport acid rain and surface ozone into central Pennsylvania.Thus, this research suggests that because of the large-scale climatology of North Amenca, acidification of the streams of the northeastern United States and southwestern Canada IS likely to continue.It also paves the way for more-reflned directed case studies and modcling efforts linking the atmosphere to water quallty.
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Yarnal et al. (1993) studied this question.