Time series of net and seasonal mass balances for three glaciers in we
stern North America, one in the Pacific Northwest and two in Alaska, s
how various relationships to Pacific hemisphere climate indexes. Durin
g the winter season the two coastal. maritime-regime glaciers, over 20
00 km apart, are affected almost identically, albeit inversely, by atm
ospheric and oceanic conditions in both the tropical and North Pacific
. The two Alaska glaciers, only 350 km apart, have almost no coherence
. Lag correlations show that in winter the maritime glaciers are influ
enced by concurrent conditions in the North Pacific, but by conditions
in the tropical Pacific in August-September of the prior northern sum
mer. The winter balance variations contain interannual Ei Nino-Souther
n Oscillation variability superimposed on North Pacific interdecadal v
ariability; the interdecadal 1976-77 climate regime shift is clearly e
vident. The summer balances and the continental-regime glacier have a
general lack of correlations, with no clear, strong, consistent patter
ns, probably a result of being influenced more by local processes or b
y circulation patterns outside the Pacific Ocean basin. The results sh
ow the Pacific Northwest is strongly influenced by conditions in the t
ropical Pacific, but that this teleconnection has broken down in recen
t years, starting in 1989. During the seven years since then (1989-95)
, all three glaciers have shown, for the first timer coherent signals,
which were net mass loss at the highest rate in the entire record. Th
e authors' results agree with those of other recent studies that sugge
st these recent years are unusual and may be a signature of climate wa
rming.