Extreme climate events in China: IPCC-AR4 model evaluation and projection

Observations from 550 surface stations in China during 1961–2000 are used to evaluate the skill of seven global coupled climate models in simulating extreme temperature and precipitation indices. It is found that the models have certain abilities to simulate both the spatial distributions of extreme climate indices and their trends in the observed period. The models’ abilities are higher overall for extreme temperature indices than for extreme precipitation indices. The well-simulated temperature indices are frost days (Fd), heat wave duration index (HWDI) and annual extreme temperature range (ETR). The well-simulated precipitation indices are the fraction of annual precipitation total due to events exceeding the 95th percentile (R95T) and simple daily intensity index (SDII). In a general manner, the multi-model ensemble has the best skill. For the projections of the extreme temperature indices, trends over the twenty-first century and changes at the end of the twenty-first century go into the same direction. Both frost days and annual extreme temperature range show decreasing trends, while growing season length, heat wave duration and warm nights show increasing trends. The increases are especially manifested in the Tibetan Plateau and in Southwest China. For extreme precipitation indices, the end of the twenty-first century is expected to have more frequent and more intense extreme precipitation. This is particularly visible in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, in the Southeast coastal region, in the west part of Northwest China, and in the Tibetan Plateau. In the meanwhile, accompanying the decrease in the maximum number of consecutive dry days in Northeast and Northwest, drought situation will reduce in these regions.     

降尺度CMIP6模式对新疆降水模拟评估

基于6个CMIP6模式的日降水量数据,采用降尺度方法将其统一分辨率到0.25°×0.25°,选取5个极端降水指数从降水气候态、极端性、季节性三个角度对新疆区域1961—2014年历史期降水模拟效果评估。结果表明,降尺度CMIP6模式能较好再现新疆区域降水的空间分布特征,最大年均降水量误差小于30 mm,夏季降水模拟效果最佳相关系数均高于0.8。模式在春秋季对降水的模拟效果差异较小,标准差比值均在1.00 ~ 1.25之间,ACCESS-CM2模拟效果最佳。模式集合均值能模拟出观测降水增多趋势,但低估了降水的年际变率,模拟结果提示新疆80年代的降水转折可能与人类活动有关。在降水极端性和季节性方面,降尺度数据对新疆的极端降水和季节性降水均有较好的模拟性能,降尺度数据对季节性降水的模拟能力（与观测均值误差小于0.001）比原始分辨率的数据（与观测误差大于0.005）效果更好。     

土壤湿度年际变化对中国区域极端气候事件模拟的影响研究 I. 基于CAM3.1的模式评估

利用NCAR大气模式CAM3.1对中国区域近40年的极端气候事件进行了模拟试验;在此基础上, 利用1961～2000年中国区域452站的逐日最高、最低气温和降水资料, 从气候平均、年际变化和长期变化趋势等方面全面评估了该模式对中国极端气候事件的模拟能力。结果表明:(1)模式对中国区域极端气候指数气候平均态的大尺度空间分布特征具有一定的模拟能力;模式对极端降水指标空间分布的模拟能力较好, 而对极端气温指标的模拟较差;模式对极端气候指标的模拟存在系统性的偏差, 模拟的极端降水的系统性偏差要远大于对极端温度的模拟。(2)模式对极端气温指数的年际变化特征具有较强的模拟能力, 而对极端降水指数的年际变化基本没有模拟能力;模式模拟的各极端降水指标的年际变幅与观测存在较大的偏差。(3)模式较好地模拟出了暖夜和暖昼指数在中国大部分区域的增加趋势, 但变幅较实测偏小;模式对热浪持续指数长期趋势的模拟则相对略差。模式对极端气温指标长期趋势的模拟能力总体优于对极端降水指标的模拟。模式对极端降水频次和中雨日数长期趋势的模拟尚可, 但对持续湿期长期趋势的空间分布模拟较差。研究结果可为该模式用于极端气候的模拟研究提供一定参考。     

Assessment of the changes in extreme vulnerability over East Asia due to global warming

A number of indices have been employed to describe weather extremes on the basis of climate regimes and public concerns. In this study, we combined these traditional indices into four groups according to whether they relate to warm (T_warm), cold (T_cold), wet (P_wet), or dry (P_dry) extremes. Analysis of the combined indices calculated for the daily temperatures and precipitation at 750 meteorological stations in Korea, China, and Japan for 1960s?C2000s shows increasing trends in T_warm and P_dry events and decreasing trends in T_cold events in recent decades, particularly in the northern part of East Asia. A notable regional variation is an increase in the P_wet events in the Korean Peninsula. We applied the same analysis to a 200-year global climate model simulation for 1900?C2099 using the National Center for Atmospheric Research-Community Climate System Model 3. During the 20th century, the changes in T_warm and T_cold calculated from the model data are largely consistent with those calculated from the observations, especially in northern East Asia. The model projections for the 21st century indicate statistically significant increasing T_warm and decreasing T_cold trends in extreme events over the region. Results obtained from historical archives and model simulations using our combined weather extreme indices suggest that northern East Asia will be subject to increased warm and dry extremes and the Korea Peninsula will experience more wet extremes.     

Changes in daily climate extremes in the arid area of northwestern China

There has been a paucity of information on trends in daily climate and climate extremes, especially for the arid region. We analyzed the changes in the indices of climate extremes, on the basis of daily maximum and minimum air temperature and precipitation at 59 meteorological stations in the arid region of northwest China over the period 1960–2003. Twelve indices of extreme temperature and six indices of extreme precipitation are examined. Temperature extremes show a warming trend with a large proportion of stations having statistically significant trends for all temperature indices. The regional occurrence of extreme cool days and nights has decreased by ?0.93 and ?2.36 days/decade, respectively. Over the same period, the occurrence of extreme warm days and nights has increased by 1.25 and 2.10 days/decade, respectively. The number of frost days and ice days shows a statistically significant decrease at the rate of ?3.24 and ?2.75 days/decade, respectively. The extreme temperature indices also show the increasing trend, with larger values for the index describing variations in the lowest minimum temperature. The trends of Min Tmin (Tmax) and Max Tmin (Tmax) are 0.85 (0.61) and 0.32 (0.17)?°C/decade. Most precipitation indices exhibit increasing trends across the region. On average, regional maximum 1-day precipitation, annual total wet-day precipitation, and number of heavy precipitation days and very wet days show insignificant increases. Insignificant decreasing trends are also found for consecutive dry days. The rank-sum statistic value of most temperature indices exhibits consistent or statistically significant trends across the region. The regional medians after 1986 of Min Tmin (Tmax), Max Tmin (Tmax), warm days (nights), and warm spell duration indicator show statistically more larger than medians before 1986, but the frost days, ice days, cool days (nights), and diurnal temperature range reversed. The medians of precipitation indices show insignificant change except for consecutive dry days before and after 1986.     

Dynamical downscaling of ERA-40 in complex terrain using the WRF regional climate model

Results from a first-time employment of the WRF regional climate model to climatological simulations in Europe are presented. The ERA-40 reanalysis (resolution 1°) has been downscaled to a horizontal resolution of 30 and 10?km for the period of 1961?C1990. This model setup includes the whole North Atlantic in the 30?km domain and spectral nudging is used to keep the large scales consistent with the driving ERA-40 reanalysis. The model results are compared against an extensive observational network of surface variables in complex terrain in Norway. The comparison shows that the WRF model is able to add significant detail to the representation of precipitation and 2-m temperature of the ERA-40 reanalysis. Especially the geographical distribution, wet day frequency and extreme values of precipitation are highly improved due to the better representation of the orography. Refining the resolution from 30 to 10?km further increases the skill of the model, especially in case of precipitation. Our results indicate that the use of 10-km resolution is advantageous for producing regional future climate projections. Use of a large domain and spectral nudging seems to be useful in reproducing the extreme precipitation events due to the better resolved synoptic scale features over the North Atlantic, and also helps to reduce the large regional temperature biases over Norway. This study presents a high-resolution, high-quality climatological data set useful for reference climate impact studies.     

1951—2009年天津市主要极端气候指数变化趋势

利用1951—2009年天津市逐日气温和降水量资料,计算了极端气候指数,并研讨了其中11个主要指数的变化特征。结果表明：天津市暖日、冷夜具有基本相反的变化趋势,暖日显著增加,冷夜显著减少,且冷夜的变化幅度远大于暖日。持续暖期、霜日呈显著增加趋势,持续冷期呈显著减少趋势。降水指数中连续干日呈增加趋势,最大连续5 d降水量...     

1951—2009年天津市主要极端气候指数变化趋势

利用1951—2009年天津市逐日气温和降水量资料,计算了极端气候指数,并研讨了其中11个主要指数的变化特征。结果表明：天津市暖日、冷夜具有基本相反的变化趋势,暖日显著增加,冷夜显著减少,且冷夜的变化幅度远大于暖日。持续暖期、霜日呈显著增加趋势,持续冷期呈显著减少趋势。降水指数中连续干日呈增加趋势,最大连续5 d降水量、日降水强度、强降水率和极强降水率及连续湿日均呈减少趋势,表明天津市干旱化倾向明显。与气温有关的极端指数大多在1993年前后出现突变,周期特征不明显。与降水有关的极端指数未现突变,但周期特征明显,大多出现10 a和4 a的周期。     

Uncertainty analysis of statistical downscaling models using Hadley Centre Coupled Model

Regression-based statistical downscaling is a method broadly used to resolve the coarse spatial resolution of general circulation models. Nevertheless, the assessment of uncertainties linked with climatic variables is essential to climate impact studies. This study presents a procedure to characterize the uncertainty in regression-based statistical downscaling of daily precipitation and temperature over a highly vulnerable area (semiarid catchment) in the west of Iran, based on two downscaling models: a statistical downscaling model (SDSM) and an artificial neural network (ANN) model. Biases in mean, variance, and wet/dry spells are estimated for downscaled data using vigorous statistical tests for 30 years of observed and downscaled daily precipitation and temperature data taken from the National Center for Environmental Prediction reanalysis predictors for the years of 1961 to 1990. In the case of daily temperature, uncertainty is estimated by comparing monthly mean and variance of downscaled and observed daily data at a 95 % confidence level. In daily precipitation, downscaling uncertainties were evaluated from comparing monthly mean dry and wet spell lengths and their confidence intervals, cumulative frequency distributions of monthly mean of daily precipitation, and the distributions of monthly wet and dry days for observed and modeled daily precipitation. Results showed that uncertainty in downscaled precipitation is high, but simulation of daily temperature can reproduce extreme events accurately. Finally, this study shows that the SDSM is the most proficient model at reproducing various statistical characteristics of observed data at a 95 % confidence level, while the ANN model is the least capable in this respect. This study attempts to test uncertainties of regression-based statistical downscaling techniques in a semiarid area and therefore contributes to an improvement of the quality of predictions of climate change impact assessment in regions of this type.     

Comparison of statistically downscaled precipitation in terms of future climate indices and daily variability for southern Ontario and Quebec,Canada

Given the coarse resolution of global climate models, downscaling techniques are often needed to generate finer scale projections of variables affected by local-scale processes such as precipitation. However, classical statistical downscaling experiments for future climate rely on the time-invariance assumption as one cannot know the true change in the variable of interest, nor validate the models with data not yet observed. Our experimental setup involves using the Canadian regional climate model (CRCM) outputs as pseudo-observations to estimate model performance in the context of future climate projections by replacing historical and future observations with model simulations from the CRCM, nested within the domain of the Canadian global climate model (CGCM). In particular, we evaluated statistically downscaled daily precipitation time series in terms of the Peirce skill score, mean absolute errors, and climate indices. Specifically, we used a variety of linear and nonlinear methods such as artificial neural networks (ANN), decision trees and ensembles, multiple linear regression, and k-nearest neighbors to generate present and future daily precipitation occurrences and amounts. We obtained the predictors from the CGCM 3.1 20C3M (1971–2000) and A2 (2041–2070) simulations, and precipitation outputs from the CRCM 4.2 (forced with the CGCM 3.1 boundary conditions) as predictands. Overall, ANN models and tree ensembles outscored the linear models and simple nonlinear models in terms of precipitation occurrences, without performance deteriorating in future climate. In contrast, for the precipitation amounts and related climate indices, the performance of downscaling models deteriorated in future climate.     

The influence of the inter-decadal Pacific oscillation on US precipitation during 1923–2010

Precipitation over the contiguous United States exhibits large multi-decadal oscillations since the early twentieth century, and they often lead to dry (e.g., 1946–1976 and 1999-present) and wet (e.g., 1977–1998) periods and apparent precipitation trends (e.g., from the 1950s to 1990s) over most of the western and central US. The exact cause of these inter-decadal variations is not fully understood. Using observational and reanalysis data and model simulations, this paper examines the influence of the Inter-decadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) on US precipitation. The IPO is a leading mode of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) seen mostly in the Pacific Ocean. It is found that decadal precipitation variations over much of the West and Central US, especially the Southwest, closely follow the evolution of the IPO (r = 0.85 during 1923–2010 for the Southwest US), and the dry and wet periods are associated, respectively, with the cold and warm phases of the IPO. In particular, the apparent upward trend from the 1950s–1990s and the dry decade thereafter in precipitation over much of the West and Central US are largely caused by the IPO cycles, which switched to a warm phase around 1977 and back to a cold phase around 1999. An atmospheric model forced with observed SSTs reproduces much of this association of US precipitation with the IPO (r = 0.95 between smoothed observed and simulated Southwest US precipitation during 1950–2009 and r = 0.88 between the simulated Southwest US precipitation and the IPO). Atmospheric reanalysis and model data both show a strong high (low) pressure center and anti-cyclonic (cyclonic) anomaly circulation over the North Pacific in the lower troposphere during cold (warm) phases of the IPO, which lead to dry and cold northwesterly and northerly winds and below-normal precipitation over much of the West US during IPO cold periods. The IPO induced changes are most pronounced during the boreal cold season. The results reinforce the notion that tropical Pacific SSTs (and the accompanying SST anomalies in the North Pacific) have large impacts on US precipitation and highlight the need to understand and simulate the IPO for decadal prediction of US precipitation.     

Regional climate model projections for the State of Washington

Global climate models do not have sufficient spatial resolution to represent the atmospheric and land surface processes that determine the unique regional climate of the State of Washington. Regional climate models explicitly simulate the interactions between the large-scale weather patterns simulated by a global model and the local terrain. We have performed two 100-year regional climate simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). One simulation is forced by the NCAR Community Climate System Model version 3 (CCSM3) and the second is forced by a simulation of the Max Plank Institute, Hamburg, global model (ECHAM5). The mesoscale simulations produce regional changes in snow cover, cloudiness, and circulation patterns associated with interactions between the large-scale climate change and the regional topography and land-water contrasts. These changes substantially alter the temperature and precipitation trends over the region relative to the global model result or statistical downscaling. To illustrate this effect, we analyze the changes from the current climate (1970–1999) to the mid twenty-first century (2030–2059). Changes in seasonal-mean temperature, precipitation, and snowpack are presented. Several climatological indices of extreme daily weather are also presented: precipitation intensity, fraction of precipitation occurring in extreme daily events, heat wave frequency, growing season length, and frequency of warm nights. Despite somewhat different changes in seasonal precipitation and temperature from the two regional simulations, consistent results for changes in snowpack and extreme precipitation are found in both simulations.     

Reconstructed Temperature And Precipitation On A Millennial Timescale From Tree-Rings In The Southern Colorado Plateau,U.S.A.

Two independent calibrated and verified climate reconstructions from ecologically contrasting tree-ring sites in the southern Colorado Plateau, U.S.A. reveal decadal-scale climatic trends during the past two millennia. Combining precisely dated annual mean-maximum temperature and October through July precipitation reconstructions yields an unparalleled record of climatic variability. The approach allows for the identification of thirty extreme wet periods and thirty-five extreme dry periods in the 1,425-year precipitation reconstruction and 30 extreme cool periods and 26 extreme warm periods in 2,262-year temperature reconstruction. In addition, the reconstructions were integrated to identify intervals when conditions were extreme in both climatic variables (cool/dry, cool/wet, warm/dry, warm/wet). Noteworthy in the reconstructions are the post-1976 warm/wet period, unprecedented in the 1,425-year record both in amplitude and duration, anomalous and prolonged late 20th century warmth, that while never exceeded, was nearly equaled in magnitude for brief intervals in the past, and substantial decadal-scale variability within the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age intervals.     

Atmospheric and terrestrial water budgets: sensitivity and performance of configurations and global driving data for long term continental scale WRF simulations

Driving data and physical parametrizations can significantly impact the performance of regional dynamical atmospheric models in reproducing hydrometeorologically relevant variables. Our study addresses the water budget sensitivity of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model System WRF (WRF-ARW) with respect to two cumulus parametrizations (Kain–Fritsch, Betts–Miller–Janji?), two global driving reanalyses (ECMWF ERA-INTERIM and NCAR/NCEP NNRP), time variant and invariant sea surface temperature and optional gridded nudging. The skill of global and downscaled models is evaluated against different gridded observations for precipitation, 2 m-temperature, evapotranspiration, and against measured discharge time-series on a monthly basis. Multi-year spatial deviation patterns and basin aggregated time series are examined for four globally distributed regions with different climatic characteristics: Siberia, Northern and Western Africa, the Central Australian Plane, and the Amazonian tropics. The simulations cover the period from 2003 to 2006 with a horizontal mesh of 30 km. The results suggest a high sensitivity of the physical parametrizations and the driving data on the water budgets of the regional atmospheric simulations. While the global reanalyses tend to underestimate 2 m-temperature by 0.2–2 K, the regional simulations are typically 0.5–3 K warmer than observed. Many configurations show difficulties in reproducing the water budget terms, e.g. with long-term mean precipitation biases of 150 mm month^?1 and higher. Nevertheless, with the water budget analysis viable setups can be deduced for all four study regions.     

CMIP5全球气候模式对上海极端气温和降水的情景预估

基于国际耦合模式比较计划第五阶段(Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5,以下简称CMIP5)28个模式的数值模拟结果和1981~2010年华东和上海气温和降水观测数据,评估了该28个气候模式对华东和上海气温和降水的模拟能力,并预估了RCP4.5(Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5)情景下上海2021~2030年极端气温和降水气候的变化趋势和不确定性。结果表明:与观测值相比,模式对华东和上海年平均气温的模拟大多均值偏高、方差偏低;对年总降水量的模拟大多均值偏高,但方差以华东偏高、上海偏低为主;26个模式的气温变化趋势和12个模式的降水变化趋势与观测值相同。选出8个模式的预估结果表明:与2001~2010年相比,2021~2030年上海冬天极端低温的出现日数(冷夜日数)呈减少趋势,不确定性最小;夏天暖夜日数呈增加的趋势,不确定性较小;其他极端气温事件的变化趋势则存在较大的不确定性,冷夜指标的不确定性最大。强降水发生日数和强降水的强度都呈现增加的趋势,且不确定性较小。     

Spatial patterns and temporal trends of daily precipitation indices in Iran

Spatial patterns of daily precipitation indices and their temporal trends over Iran are investigated using the APHRODITE gridded daily precipitation dataset for the period 1961–2004. The performance and limitations of the gridded dataset are checked against observations at ten rain-gauge stations that are representative of different climates in Iran. Results suggest that the spatial patterns of the indices reflect the role of orography and sea neighborhoods in differentiating central-southern arid and semi-arid regions from northern and western mountainous humid areas. It is also found that western Iran is impacted by the most extreme daily precipitation events occurring in the country, though the number of rainy days has its maximum in the Caspian Sea region. The time series of precipitation indices is checked for long-term trends using the least squares method and Mann-Kendall test. The maximum daily precipitation per year shows upward trends in most of Iran, though being statistically significant only in western regions. In the same regions, upward trends are also observed in the number of wet days and in the accumulated precipitation and intensity during wet days. Conversely, the contribution of precipitation events below the 75th percentile to the annual total precipitation is decreasing with time, suggesting that extreme events are responsible for the upward trend observed in the total annual precipitation and in the other indices. This tendency towards more severe/extreme precipitation events, if confirmed by other datasets and further analyses with longer records, would require the implementation of adequate water resources management plans in western Iran aimed at mitigating the increasing risk of intense precipitation and associated flash floods and soil erosion.     

RegCM4模式对雄安及周边区域气候变化的集合预估

基于CSIRO-Mk3-6-0、EC-EARTH、HadGEM2-ES和MPI-ESM-MR共4个全球气候模式,分别驱动区域气候模式RegCM4,所进行的RCP4.5（典型浓度路径）中等排放情景下25 km较高水平分辨率东亚区域21世纪气候变化模拟结果,针对雄安新区及周边区域,在对当代（1986~2005）气候进行检验的基础上,进行了该区域未来气候变化的多模拟集合预估,并给出了模拟间的差别。结果表明:RegCM4可以较好地模拟出分析区域当代平均气温和降水的分布及年内月循环变化特征;对与气温相关的极端气候事件指数,日最高气温最高值（TXx）和日最低气温最低值（TNn）,以及和降水相关的指数日最大降水量（RX1day）也有较好的模拟能力。雄安及周边区域未来平均气温、TXx和TNn将不断上升,高温热浪事件在增加的同时,低温事件将减少。未来分析区域平均降水量有所增加;而RX1day的增加更明显,且模拟间的一致性较好,不确定性相对较低,暴雨和洪涝事件的频率和强度均将增大。同时由于气温升高导致的潜在蒸发量相对于降水更大的增加,将使得区域水资源相对不足的现象加重。     

自组织映射神经网络(SOM)降尺度方法对江淮流域逐日降水量的模拟评估

利用1961~2002年ERA-40逐日再分析资料和江淮流域56个台站逐日观测降水量资料,引入基于自组织映射神经网络(Self-Organizing Maps,简称SOM)的统计降尺度方法,对江淮流域夏季(6~8月)逐日降水量进行统计建模与验证,以考察SOM对中国东部季风降水和极端降水的统计降尺度模拟能力。结果表明,SOM通过建立主要天气型与局地降水的条件转换关系,能够再现与观测一致的日降水量概率分布特征,所有台站基于概率分布函数的Brier评分(Brier Score)均近似为0,显著性评分(Significance Score)全部在0.8以上;模拟的多年平均降水日数、中雨日数、夏季总降水量、日降水强度、极端降水阈值和极端降水贡献率区域平均的偏差都低于11%;并且能够在一定程度上模拟出江淮流域夏季降水的时间变率。进一步将SOM降尺度模型应用到BCCCSM1.1(m)模式当前气候情景下,评估其对耦合模式模拟结果的改善能力。发现降尺度显著改善了模式对极端降水模拟偏弱的缺陷,对不同降水指数的模拟较BCC-CSM1.1(m)模式显著提高,降尺度后所有台站6个降水指数的相对误差百分率基本在20%以内,偏差比降尺度前减小了40%~60%;降尺度后6个降水指数气候场的空间相关系数提高到0.9,相对标准差均接近1.0,并且均方根误差在0.5以下。表明SOM降尺度方法显著提高日降水概率分布,特别是概率分布曲线尾部特征的模拟能力,极大改善了模式对极端降水场的模拟能力,为提高未来预估能力提供了基础。     

Does CMIP6 Inspire More Confidence in Simulating Climate Extremes over China?

Based on climate extreme indices calculated from a high-resolution daily observational dataset in China during1961–2005, the performance of 12 climate models from phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project(CMIP6),and 30 models from phase 5 of CMIP(CMIP5), are assessed in terms of spatial distribution and interannual variability. The CMIP6 multi-model ensemble mean(CMIP6-MME) can simulate well the spatial pattern of annual mean temperature,maximum daily maximum temperature, and minimum daily minimum temperature. However, CMIP6-MME has difficulties in reproducing cold nights and warm days, and has large cold biases over the Tibetan Plateau. Its performance in simulating extreme precipitation indices is generally lower than in simulating temperature indices. Compared to CMIP5, CMIP6 models show improvements in the simulation of climate indices over China. This is particularly true for precipitation indices for both the climatological pattern and the interannual variation, except for the consecutive dry days. The arealmean bias for total precipitation has been reduced from 127%(CMIP5-MME) to 79%(CMIP6-MME). The most striking feature is that the dry biases in southern China, very persistent and general in CMIP5-MME, are largely reduced in CMIP6-MME. Stronger ascent together with more abundant moisture can explain this reduction in dry biases. Wet biases for total precipitation, heavy precipitation, and precipitation intensity in the eastern Tibetan Plateau are still present in CMIP6-MME, but smaller, compared to CMIP5-MME.     

An intercomparison of observed and simulated extreme rainfall and temperature events during the last half of the twentieth century: part 2: historical trends

We analyze historical simulations of variability in temperature and rainfall extremes in the twentieth century, as derived from various global models run informing the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-AR4). On the basis of three indices of climate extremes, we compare observed and modeled trends in time and space, including the direction and significance of the changes at the scale of South America south of 10° S. The climate extremes described warm nights, heavy rainfall amounts and dry spells. The reliability of the GCM simulations is suggested by similarity between observations and simulations in the case of warm nights and extreme rainfall in some regions. For any specific extreme temperature index, minor differences appear in the spatial distribution of the changes across models in some regions, while substantial differences appear in regions in the interior of tropical and subtropical South America. The differences are in the relative magnitude of the trends. Consensus and significance are less strong when regional patterns are considered, with the exception of the La Plata Basin, where observed and simulated trends in warm nights and extreme rainfall are evident.