Modelling daily temperature extremes: recent climate and future changes over Europe

Probability distributions of daily maximum and minimum temperatures in a suite of ten RCMs are investigated for (1) biases compared to observations in the present day climate and (2) climate change signals compared to the simulated present day climate. The simulated inter-model differences and climate changes are also compared to the observed natural variability as reflected in some very long instrumental records. All models have been forced with driving conditions from the same global model and run for both a control period and a future scenario period following the A2 emission scenario from IPCC. We find that the bias in the fifth percentile of daily minimum temperatures in winter and at the 95th percentile of daily maximum temperature during summer is smaller than 3 (±5°C) when averaged over most (all) European sub-regions. The simulated changes in extreme temperatures both in summer and winter are larger than changes in the median for large areas. Differences between models are larger for the extremes than for mean temperatures. A comparison with historical data shows that the spread in model predicted changes in extreme temperatures is larger than the natural variability during the last centuries.     

长江流域极端降水过程事件的年内分布特征

基于1960-2016年乌江流域41个气象站的逐日降水观测资料,利用线性倾向估计、滑动平均、累积距平等方法计算趋势系数和气候趋势,分析了研究时段内乌江流域年暴雨等级面雨量、年平均最大日降水量、年平均极端持续强降水次数和对应降水量的时空分布特征,分析表明：（1）乌江流域年暴雨等级面雨量和日数呈显著增加趋势（均通过α=0.05显著性水平检验）,而暴雨强度呈不显著性增加趋势;5-10月各旬暴雨等级面雨量及日数变化基本一致,5月中旬至8月上旬呈单峰型分布,暴雨强度呈波动增减分布。（2）近57 a乌江流域年平均最大日降水量年代际变化比较明显。（3）乌江流域发生极端持续强降水年平均次数呈不显著的减少趋势,但极端持续强降水量呈不显著的增加趋势。采用耿贝尔极值Ⅰ型分布法计算了乌江流域5个代表站不同重现期日最大降水量值,发现不同站点日极端最大降水量重现期水平差异明显,重现期时间尺度存在临界点,约为50 a。

     

中国近50 a极端降水事件变化特征的季节性差异

强降水极易造成暴雨灾害,尤其是突发性强的短时强降水,动态监测、影响评估和风险预估是灾害防御的重要手段。但目前气象服务业务中,强降水的定量评估和风险预估还是以天为单位,现代气象服务精细化的需求迫切要将时间分辨率提升至小时尺度。本文利用1951-2018年国家气象观测站小时降水观测资料,从小时尺度界定站点、大区域、小区域降水过程的辨识方法。基于改进的降水过程综合强度评估方法,在概率密度分布的基础上,重新划分了极端、特强、强、较强、中等五个等级的降水过程综合强度指数。检验论证显示,基于小时分辨率降水过程的自动提取和评估方法合理,具有可操作性,能够对过程性降水、短时降水过程动态评估和预评估,可实时支撑气象服务业务,提升气象防灾减灾能力,也为后续开展短时强降水影响评估和风险预估建立基础。

     

Abrupt summer warming and changes in temperature extremes over Northeast Asia since the mid-1990s: Drivers and physical processes

This study investigated the drivers and physical processes for the abrupt decadal summer surface warming and increases in hot temperature extremes that occurred over Northeast Asia in the mid-1990 s. Observations indicate an abrupt increase in summer mean surface air temperature(SAT) over Northeast Asia since the mid-1990 s. Accompanying this abrupt surface warming, significant changes in some temperature extremes, characterized by increases in summer mean daily maximum temperature(Tmax), daily minimum temperature(Tmin), annual hottest day temperature(TXx), and annual warmest night temperature(TNx) were observed. There were also increases in the frequency of summer days(SU) and tropical nights(TR).Atmospheric general circulation model experiments forced by changes in sea surface temperature(SST)/ sea ice extent(SIE),anthropogenic greenhouse gas(GHG) concentrations, and anthropogenic aerosol(AA) forcing, relative to the period 1964–93, reproduced the general patterns of observed summer mean SAT changes and associated changes in temperature extremes,although the abrupt decrease in precipitation since the mid-1990 s was not simulated. Additional model experiments with different forcings indicated that changes in SST/SIE explained 76% of the area-averaged summer mean surface warming signal over Northeast Asia, while the direct impact of changes in GHG and AA explained the remaining 24% of the surface warming signal. Analysis of physical processes indicated that the direct impact of the changes in AA(through aerosol–radiation and aerosol–cloud interactions), mainly related to the reduction of AA precursor emissions over Europe, played a dominant role in the increase in TXx and a similarly important role as SST/SIE changes in the increase in the frequency of SU over Northeast Asia via AA-induced coupled atmosphere–land surface and cloud feedbacks, rather than through a direct impact of AA changes on cloud condensation nuclei. The modelling results also imply that the abrupt summer surface warming and increases in hot temperature extremes over Northeast Asia since the mid-1990 s will probably sustain in the next few decades as GHG concentrations continue to increase and AA precursor emissions over both North America and Europe continue to decrease.     

Future changes in precipitation extremes over China using the NEX-GDDP high-resolution daily downscaled data-set

最近,NASA发布了一套基于CMIP5 21个耦合模式输出的高分辨率降尺度逐日数据集,简称NEX-GDDP。本文评估了NEX-GDDP对中国极端降水的模拟性能。研究发现:(1)相比CMIP5直接输出结果,NEX-GDDP能够更好刻画中国极端降水的空间分布;(2)未来中国极端降水事件明显增多、强度增强,NEX-GDDP在区域尺度上给出了更多的气候变化信息;(3)NEXGDDP预估的中国未来极端降水变化的不确定性范围相比CMIP5直接输出结果明显减少,使得预估结果更加可靠.     

Compound summer temperature and precipitation extremes over central Europe

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Reliable knowledge of the near-future climate change signal of extremes is important for adaptation and mitigation strategies. Especially compound extremes,...     

Statistical downscaling of summer temperature extremes in northern China

Two approaches of statistical downscaling were applied to indices of temperature extremes based on percentiles of daily maximum and minimum temperature observations at Beijing station in summer during 1960-2008. One was to downscale daily maximum and minimum temperatures by using EOF analysis and stepwise linear regression at first, then to calculate the indices of extremes; the other was to directly downscale the percentile-based indices by using seasonal large-scale temperature and geo-potential height records. The cross-validation results showed that the latter approach has a better performance than the former. Then, the latter approach was applied to 48 meteorological stations in northern China. The cross-validation results for all 48 stations showed close correlation between the percentile-based indices and the seasonal large-scale variables. Finally, future scenarios of indices of temperature extremes in northern China were projected by applying the statistical downscaling to Hadley Centre Coupled Model Version 3 (HadCM3) simulations under the Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 (RCP 4.5) scenario of the Fifth Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP5). The results showed that the 90th percentile of daily maximum temperatures will increase by about 1.5℃, and the 10th of daily minimum temperatures will increase by about 2℃ during the period 2011-35 relative to 1980-99.     

Summer mean daily air temperature extremes in Central Spitsbergen

Summer mean daily temperature extremes in Svalbard Lufthavn (Central Spitsbergen) in the period 1975–2010 and daily pressure patterns and directions of air circulation conducive to their occurrence were analyzed. Positive (negative) extremes of daily mean temperatures in the summer were determined as higher (lower) than or equal to the value of the 90th (10th) percentile. The annual number of selected days shows a great year-to-year variability, although the annual number of extremely low mean daily temperature (≤1.3 °C) was decreasing in the 1976–2010 period, with a rate of about 4 days per decade. At the same time, the number of days with extremely high mean daily temperatures (≤8.2 °C) was increasing with a rate of about 2 days per decade. The summer pressure patterns and the air circulation conditions have an impact on the occurrence of the air mean daily temperature extremes. Namely, anticyclones spreading east to the Svalbard Archipelago, accompanied by the Icelandic Low, cause the air inflow from the southerly direction and positive mean daily temperature extremes. A cyclonal system spreading east or southeast towards the archipelago, together with a high-pressure ridge over the North Atlantic, indicates the northern air flow and negative mean daily temperature extremes in summer. The results obtained in this study prove that the summer air temperature in the Atlantic region of the Arctic is partly controlled by air circulation, and despite the intensity and stability of the summer cyclones and anticyclones being weaker than in the winter, their position strongly determines the occurrence of mean daily temperature extremes in the summer.     

A new daily weather generator to preserve extremes and low-frequency variability

This paper addresses deficiencies of stochastic Weather Generators (WGs) in terms of reproduction of low-frequency variability and extremes, as well as the unanticipated effects of changes to precipitation occurrence under climate change scenarios on secondary variables. A new weather generator (named IWG) is developed in order to resolve such deficiencies and improve WGs performance. The proposed WG is composed of three major components, including a stochastic rainfall model able to reproduce realistic rainfall series containing extremes and inter-annual monthly variability, a multivariate daily temperature model conditioned to the rainfall occurrence, and a suitable multi-variate monthly generator to fit the low-frequency variability of daily maximum and minimum temperature series. The performance of IWG was tested by comparing statistical characteristics of the simulated and observed weather data, and by comparing statistical characteristics of the simulated runoff outputs by a daily rainfall-runoff model fed by the generated and observed weather data. Furthermore, IWG outputs are compared with those of the well-known LARS-WG weather generator. The tested characteristics are a variety of different daily statistics, low-frequency variability, and distribution of extremes. It is concluded that the performance of the IWG is acceptable, better than LARS-WG in the majority of tests, especially in reproduction of extremes and low-frequency variability of weather and runoff series.     

Simulation of the variability and extremes of daily rainfall during the Indian summer monsoon for present and future times in a global time-slice experiment

In this study the simulation of the variability and extremes of daily rainfall during the Indian summer monsoon for the present-day and the future climate is investigated. This is done on the basis of a global time-slice experiment (TSL) with the ECHAM4 atmospheric general circulation model (GCM) at a high horizontal resolution of T106. The first time-slice (period: 1970–1999) represents the present-day climate and the second (2060–2089) the future climate. Moreover, observational rainfall data from the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP, 1997–2002) and rainfall data from the ECMWF re-analysis (ERA, 1958–2001) are considered. ERA reveals serious deficiencies in its representation of the variability and extremes of daily rainfall during the Indian summer monsoon. These are mainly a severe overestimation of the frequency of wet days over the oceans and in the Himalayas, where also the rainfall intensity is overestimated. Further, ERA shows unrealistically heavy rainfall events over the tropical Indian Ocean. The ECHAM4 atmospheric GCM at a horizontal resolution of T106, on the other hand, simulates the variability and extremes of daily rainfall in good agreement with the observations. The only marked deficiencies are an underestimation of the rainfall intensity on the west coast of the Indian peninsula and in Bangladesh, an overestimation over the tropical Indian Ocean, due to an erroneous northwestward extension of the tropical convergence zone, and an overestimation of the frequency of wet days in Tibet. Further, heavy rainfall events are relatively strong in the centre of the Indian peninsula. For the future, TSL predicts large increases in the rainfall intensity over the tropical Indian Ocean as well as in northern Pakistan and northwest India, but decreases in southern Pakistan, in the centre of the Indian peninsula, and over the western part of the Bay of Bengal. The frequency of wet days is markedly increased over the tropical Indian Ocean and decreased over the northern part of the Arabian Sea and in Tibet. The intensity of heavy rainfall events is generally increased in the future, with large increases over the Arabian Sea and the tropical Indian Ocean, in northern Pakistan and northwest India as well as in northeast India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.     

Estimating missing daily temperature extremes in Jaffna,Sri Lanka

The accuracy of reconstructing missing daily temperature extremes in the Jaffna climatological station, situated in the northern part of the dry zone of Sri Lanka, is presented. The adopted method utilizes standard departures of daily maximum and minimum temperature values at four neighbouring stations, Mannar, Anuradhapura, Puttalam and Trincomalee to estimate the standard departures of daily maximum and minimum temperatures at the target station, Jaffna. The daily maximum and minimum temperatures from 1966 to 1980 (15 years) were used to test the validity of the method. The accuracy of the estimation is higher for daily maximum temperature compared to daily minimum temperature. About 95% of the estimated daily maximum temperatures are within ±1.5 °C of the observed values. For daily minimum temperature, the percentage is about 92. By calculating the standard deviation of the difference in estimated and observed values, we have shown that the error in estimating the daily maximum and minimum temperatures is ±0.7 and ±0.9 °C, respectively. To obtain the best accuracy when estimating the missing daily temperature extremes, it is important to include Mannar which is the nearest station to the target station, Jaffna. We conclude from the analysis that the method can be applied successfully to reconstruct the missing daily temperature extremes in Jaffna where no data is available due to frequent disruptions caused by civil unrests and hostilities in the region during the period, 1984 to 2000.     

Large-scale dynamics have greater role than thermodynamics in driving precipitation extremes over India

Climate Dynamics - The changing characteristics of precipitation extremes under global warming have recently received tremendous attention, yet the mechanisms are still insufficiently understood....     

Transient twenty-first century changes in daily-scale temperature extremes in the United States

A key question for climate mitigation and adaptation decisions is how quickly significant changes in temperature extremes will emerge as greenhouse gas concentrations increase, and whether that emergence will be uniform between hot and cold extremes and across different geographic areas. We use a high-resolution, multi-member ensemble climate model experiment over the United States (U.S.) to investigate the transient response of the annual frequency, duration and magnitude of 8 daily-scale extreme temperature indices during the twenty-first century of the A1B emissions scenario. We evaluate the time of emergence of a permanent exceedance (PE) above the colder part of the historical (1980–2009) extremes distribution, and the time of emergence of a new norm (NN) centered on the historical maxima (for hot extremes) or minima (for cold extremes). We find that during the twenty-first century, hot extremes permanently exceed the historical distribution’s colder half over large areas of the U.S., and that the hot extremes distribution also becomes centered on or above the historical distribution’s maxima. The changes are particularly robust for the exceedance of the annual 95th percentile of daily maximum temperature over the West and the Northeast (with the earliest emergence of a PE by 2030 and of a NN by 2040), for warm days over the Southwest (with the earliest emergence of a PE by 2020 and of a NN by 2030), and tropical nights over the eastern U.S. (with the earliest emergence of a PE by 2020 and of a NN by 2030). Conversely, no widespread emergence of a PE or a NN is found for most cold extremes. Exceptions include frost day frequency (with a widespread emergence of a PE below the historical median frequency by 2030 and of a NN by 2040 over the western U.S.), and cold night frequency (with an emergence of a PE below the historical median frequency by 2040 and of a NN by 2060 in virtually the entire U.S.). Our analysis implies a transition over the next half century to a climate of recently unprecedented heat stress in many parts of the U.S., along with cold extremes that, although less frequent, remain at times as long and as severe as are found in the current climate.     

中国东北冬季极端低温的年代际变化及其成因

利用JRA-55再分析资料和中国824站日最低气温数据,分析了1961—2013年冬季中国东北地区极端低温的年代际变化及其动力成因。结果表明:东北冬季极端低温1980s中期前频发,1980s后期到2000s初少发,2000s后恢复多发。这与贝加尔湖阻塞高压频次偏多—偏少—偏多的同步年代际变化直接相关,与北极涛动(Arctic Oscillation,AO)和准定常行星波活动的年代际振荡相联系。相比于1980s中期前,1988—1999年期间行星波沿极地波导向平流层的传播减弱,引起高纬度平流层下层E-P通量辐合变弱;而行星波沿低纬波导往副热带对流层上层的传播增强,造成副热带对流层中上层E-P通量辐合增强。行星波E-P通量散度的异常由于波—流相互作用,分别导致了极夜急流加强、副热带急流减弱,因而AO增强,不利于贝湖阻高建立和环流经向型发展,极端低温减少。2000—2013年,行星波活动相反,导致AO减弱,贝湖阻高多发,极端低温恢复增多。     

Anomalous circulation patterns in association with two types of daily precipitation extremes over southeastern China during boreal summer

Based on the daily rainfall data from China Meteorological Administration, the tropical cyclone (TC) best track data from Japan Meteorological Agency, and the NCEP-NCAR reanalysis data from NOAA, regional mean daily precipitation extreme (RDPE) events over southeastern China (specifically, the Fujian-Jiangxi region (FJR)) and the associated circulation anomalies are investigated. For the summers of 1979–2011, a total of 105 RDPE events are identified, among which 35 are TC-influenced (TCIn-RDPE) and 70 are TC-free events (TCFr-RDPE). Distinct differences between these two types of RDPEs are found in both their statistical features and the related circulation patterns. TCFr-RDPEs usually occur in June, while TCIn-RDPEs mainly take place during July–August. When TCFr-RDPEs happen, a center of the anomalous cyclonic circulation is observed over the FJR, with an anomalous anticyclonic circulation to the south of this region. The warm/moist air flows from the South China Sea (SCS) and western Pacific meet with colder air from the north, forming a narrow convergent belt of water vapor over the FJR. Simultaneously, positive diabatic forcing anomalies are observed over the FJR, whereas negative anomalies appear over both its south and north sides, facilitating the formation and maintenance of the cyclonic circulation anomaly, as well as the upward motion of the atmosphere, over the FJR. When TCIn-RDPEs occur, southeastern China is dominated by a TC-related stronger anomalous cyclonic circulation. An anomalous anticyclonic circulation in the mid and high latitudes north of the FJR exists in the mid and upper troposphere, opposite to the situation during TCFr-RDPE events. Abundant warm/wet air is carried into the FJR from both the Indian Ocean and the SCS, leading to a large amount of latent heat release over the FJR and inducing strong ascending motion there. Furthermore, large differences are also found in the manifestation of Rossby wave energy propagation between these two types of RDPE events. The results of this study are helpful to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms behind these two types of RDPE events.     

基于RegCM4模式的我国西南地区极端降水变化预估研究

基于5个全球气候系统模式结果驱动的高分辨率区域气候模式(RegCM4)模拟输出,系统评估了RegCM4模式对中国西南地区极端降水变化的模拟性能,并科学预估了中国西南地区极端降水的未来演变特征。结果表明,RegCM4模式能合理再现西南地区极端降水变化特征,但模拟的四川中部的湿偏差较大而四川盆地干偏差较大;进行偏差校正后,模拟性能有所提升,对西南地区极端降水模拟偏差有所减小。相较于当代气候(1986—2005年),就区域平均而言在21世纪(2021—2098年),有效降水总量(Prcptot)、强降水日数(R10 mm)、日最大降水量(Rx1day)和极端降水量(R95p)都明显增加;在RCP4.5和RCP8.5情景下,Rx1day和R95p在西南大部分地区增多,到21世纪末RCP4.5情景下增加幅度分别为16.0%和12.6%;Prcptot和R10 mm未来变化存在一定的区域差异,但Prcptot和R10 mm变化在空间上较为相似,在云南南部和四川盆地地区呈现减少趋势,其余地区增加明显;且RCP8.5高排放情景的变化幅度明显大于RCP4.5情景。     

North Pacific cyclonic and anticyclonic transients in a global warming context: possible consequences for Western North American daily precipitation and temperature extremes

Trajectories of surface cyclones and anticyclones were constructed using an automated scheme by tracking local minima and maxima of mean daily sea level pressure data in the NCEP-NCAR reanalysis and the Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques coupled global climate Model (CNRM-CM3) SRES A2 integration. Mid-latitude lows and highs traveling in the North Pacific were tracked and daily frequencies were gridded. Transient activity in the CNRM-CM3 historical simulation (1950–1999) was validated against reanalysis. The GCM correctly reproduces winter trajectories as well as mean geographical distributions of cyclones and anticyclones over the North Pacific in spite of a general under-estimation of cyclones’ frequency. On inter-annual time scales, frequencies of cyclones and anticyclones vary in accordance with the Aleutian Low (AL) strength. When the AL is stronger (weaker), cyclones are more (less) numerous over the central and eastern North Pacific, while anticyclones are significantly less (more) numerous over this region. The action of transient cyclones and anticyclones over the central and eastern North Pacific determines seasonal climate over the West Coast of North America, and specifically, winter weather over California. Relationships between winter cyclone/anticyclone behavior and daily precipitation/cold temperature extremes over Western North America (the West) were examined and yielded two simple indices summarizing North Pacific transient activity relevant to regional climates. These indices are strongly related to the observed inter-annual variability of daily precipitation and cold temperature extremes over the West as well as to large scale seasonally averaged near surface climate conditions (e.g., air temperature at 2 m and wind at 10 m). In fact, they represent the synoptic links that accomplish the teleconnections. Comparison of patterns derived from NCEP-NCAR and CNRM-CM3 revealed that the model reproduces links between cyclone/anticyclone frequencies over the Northeastern Pacific and extra-tropical climate conditions but is deficient in relation to tropical climate variability. The connections between these synoptic indices and Western weather are well reproduced by the model. Under advanced global warming conditions, that is, the last half of the century, the model predicts a significant reduction of cyclonic transients throughout the mid-latitude North Pacific with the exception of the far northern and northeastern domains. Anticyclonic transients respond somewhat more regionally but consistently to strong greenhouse forcing, with notably fewer anticyclones over the Okhotsk/Kamchatka sector and generally more anticyclones in the Northeastern Pacific. These modifications of synoptic weather result in regional feedbacks, that is, regional synoptic alterations of the anthropogenic warming signal around the North Pacific. In the eastern Pacific, for example, synoptic feedbacks, having to do especially with the northward shift of the eastern Pacific storm-track (responding, in turn, to a weaker equator-to-pole temperature gradient), are favorable to more anticyclonic conditions off the American mid-latitude west coast and more cyclonic conditions at higher latitudes. These circulation feedbacks further reduce the equator-to-pole temperature gradient by favoring high-latitude mean winter warming especially over a broad wedge of the Arctic north of the Bering Sea and moderating the warming along the mid-latitude west coast of north America while also reducing precipitation frequencies from California to Northern Mexico.