Solar dimming and its impact on estimating solar radiation from diurnal temperature range in China, 1961–2007

The relationship of prolonged dry spells in Eastern Mediterranean with large-scale surface and upper circulation is investigated on seasonal basis with the aid of the Singular-Value Decomposition Analysis (SVDA) for the period 1958–2000. The study was based on daily precipitation data of 56 stations, evenly distributed over Eastern Mediterranean region. Extreme dry spells are defined using the CDD index (maximum number of consecutive dry days). It was found that teleconnection patterns centered over Northern Atlantic and northern Europe seem to affect the duration of the longest dry spells over the Eastern Mediterranean, while surface synoptic scale systems in Northern Africa play a substantial role. The SVDA results compare well with the corresponding results of Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA), mainly for the surface circulation during winter and summer.     

Spatial and temporal analysis of dry spells in Croatia

Systematic statistical analysis of dry day sequences, which are defined according to 0.1, 1, 5 and 10 mm of precipitation-per-day thresholds, is performed on seasonal and yearly basis. The data analysed come from 25 Croatian meteorological stations and cover the period 1961–2000. Climatological features of the mean and maximum dry spell durations, as well as the frequency of long dry spells (>20 days) are discussed. The results affirm the three main climatological regions in Croatia, with the highlands exhibiting shorter dry spells than the mainland, and the coastal region exhibiting longer dry spells. The prevailing positive trend of both mean and maximal durations is detected during winter and spring seasons, while negative trend dominate in autumn for all thresholds. Positive field significant trends of mean dry spell duration with 5 and 10 mm thresholds are found during spring and the same is valid for annual maximum dry spell duration with a 10 mm threshold. It is found that the Discrete Autoregressive Moving Average (DARMA(1,1)) model can be used to estimate the probabilities of dry spells in Croatia that are up to 20–30 days long.     

Spatial trends of dry spells over Peninsular Malaysia during monsoon seasons

This study aims to trace changes in the dry spells over Peninsular Malaysia based on the daily rainfall data from 36 selected rainfall stations which include four subregions, namely northwest, west, southwest, and east for the periods of 1975 to 2004. Six dry spell indices comprising of the main characteristics of dry spells, the persistency of dry events, and the frequency of the short and long duration of dry spells will be used to identify whether or not these indices have increased or decreased over Peninsular Malaysia during the monsoon seasons. The findings of this study indicate that the northwestern areas of the Peninsular could be considered as the driest area since almost all the indices of dry spells over these areas are higher than in the other regions during the northeast (NE) monsoon. Based on the individual and the field significant trends, the results of the Mann–Kendall test indicate that as the total number of dry days, the maximum duration, the mean, and the persistency of dry days are decreased, the trend of the frequency of long dry spells of at least 4 days is also found to decrease in almost all the stations over the Peninsula; however, an increasing trend is observed in the frequency of short spells in these stations during the NE monsoon season. On the other hand, during the southwest monsoon, a positive trend is observed in the characteristics of dry spells including the persistency of two dry days in many stations over the Peninsula. The frequency of longer dry periods exhibits a decreasing trend in most stations over the western areas during both monsoon seasons for the periods of 1975 to 2004.     

Trends of summer dry spells in China during the late twentieth century

Summary In the present study the trends in frequency and duration of dry spells in six sub-regions of China were analyzed for the summer-half-year season (April–September) in period 1956–2000. A dry spell was defined as a number of consecutive days without measurable precipitation. For the frequency of short dry spells (length <10 days), significant changes are observed in the North, Northeast and Southwest China. For the frequency of long dry spells (length 10 days) there are significant trends in North and Northeast China; while no remarkable trends in frequency are found in other regions. There are also significant lengthening trends in dry spell duration in North and Northeast China, resulting mainly from the long-term changes in short dry spells. No significant change is observed for the maximum length in all regions. It is found that the temporal distribution of precipitation within the rainy season would notably impact the features of dry spells. An increase in the precipitation amount does not necessarily mean a synchronous reduction in dry spell frequency and/or duration. Seasonal mean anomalies of 500hPa heights in association with the long dry spells show similar spatial patterns over the middle to high latitudes for five of the six sub-regions (with exception of the case of Southwest China), resembling a west–east direction dipole in latitudes about 30°N northwards. For the case of Southwest China the dominant feature in 500hPa heights is the negative anomalies over most middle to high latitude Asia. Among these cases there are recognizable differences, particularly, in the tropical regions in western Pacific. That would provide useful information of circulation background for understanding the climate extremes.     

Dry spell characteristics over India based on IMD and APHRODITE datasets

Selected characteristics of dry spells and associated trends over India during the 1951–2007 period is studied using two gridded datasets: the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and the Asian Precipitation-Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of the water resources (APHRODITE) datasets. Two precipitation thresholds, 1 and 3 mm, are used to define a dry day (and therefore dry spells) in this study. Comparison of the spatial patterns of the dry spell characteristics (mean number of dry days, mean number of dry spells, mean and maximum duration of dry spells) for the annual and summer monsoon period obtained with both datasets agree overall, except for the northernmost part of India. The number of dry days obtained with APHRODITE is larger for this region compared to IMD, which is consistent with the smaller precipitation for the region in APHRODITE. These differences are also visible in the spatial patterns of mean and maximum dry spell durations. Analysis of field significance associated with trends, at the level of 34 predefined meteorological subdivisions over the mainland, suggests better agreement between the two datasets in positive trends associated with number of dry days for the annual and summer monsoon period, for both thresholds. Important differences between the two datasets are noted in the field significance associated with the negative trends. While negative trends in annual maximum duration of dry spells appear field significant for the desert regions according to both datasets, they are found field significant for two regions (Punjab and South Interior Karnataka) for the monsoon period for both datasets. This study, in addition to providing information on the spatial and temporal patterns associated with dry spell characteristics, also allows identification of regions and characteristics where the two datasets agree/disagree.     

Modelling Wet and Dry Spells with Mixture Distributions

Summary The object of the study is to develop a discrete precipitation model which is able to simulate local, daily series of precipitation occurrences. The model is fitted to the observed data of two stations, Szeged and Szombathely, in Hungary (1951–1995), with pronounced attention to the reproduction of long dry periods, as characteristic features of the climate in Central Europe. The point of the approach is to model the duration of consecutive dry and wet series, i.e., spells, instead of individual wet or dry days. After having comparisons of three different aspects performed, the selected precipitation threshold is 0.1 mm. This threshold keeps the duration of dry and wet periods more or less balanced, whereas the value of the threshold does not fundamentally influence either the conditional distribution of macrocirculation types or the local weather statistics related to the so defined wet or dry days. The duration of both wet and dry spells are found to be independent of the length of either the preceding (opposite) or the last, but one (identical) state. It is also demonstrated that mixed distributions fairly fit to the wet and dry spells, whereas the simple geometric does not, especially due to the erroneous lack of long dry sequences. Weighted sum of two geometric distributions, as well as that of one geometric and one Poisson distribution exhibits good fitting for the dry spells, whereas only the latter one can be advised to employ for the wet periods. Parameters of the distributions obviously depend on the season and the site, in question. Received June 30, 1999 Revised February 3, 2000     

Investigation of sea level trends and the effect of the north atlantic oscillation (NAO) on the black sea and the eastern mediterranean sea

Understanding variations in precipitation from a variety of aspects is important for the utilization of water resources. Based on daily precipitation records at 98 meteorological stations in Sichuan province, southwestern China, the spatial and temporal changes in wet/dry spells were investigated by using 14 precipitation indices. The Mann–Kendall trend test is used to detect trends in the index series. Results suggest that the decrease of precipitation in central and eastern Sichuan was significant in terms of decreasing tendencies of wet spell indices. However, the decreasing trend of dry spell indices suggested an increase in precipitation in western Sichuan province. A higher risk of droughts can be expected in autumn and wet spell indices in winter and spring are increasing, implying obvious seasonality and seasonal shifts of change in precipitation within this province. Wet/dry spells with short duration were accounted for a large proportion of spells in Sichuan. The occurrence and fractional contribution of short-duration wet spells were increasing. The same trend was found in dry spells with short and moderate duration in Sichuan     

Trends in dry spells across Catalonia (NE Spain) during the second half of the 20th century

Summary A spatiotemporal trend analysis of different magnitudes related to the number and length of the dry spells in Catalonia (NE Spain) has been conducted based on daily rainfall records taken from 40 rain gauges during the second half of the 20^th century. Dry spells have been computed for threshold levels of 0.1, 1, 5 and 10 mm/day at annual and semi-annual scales. The winter half-year is defined from October to March and the summer half-year from April to September. The magnitudes considered are the number, the maximum length and the mean length of the dry spells for every year and half-year. The spatial patterns of the average values of these magnitudes at the annual scale show a greater similarity with those of the summer half-year than with those of the winter half-year. A S–N or SW–NE gradient of the number of dry spells appears during the summer half-year for every threshold level. Trends of the analysed magnitudes are derived from linear regression and local statistical significances at the 95% confidence level are established using the Mann-Kendall test. Field significant trends are investigated by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The most relevant finding is that the number of dry spells per year depicts significant trends for the annual and winter-half series, with an overall decreasing trend for 5 and 10 mm/day thresholds. These observed trends are in agreement with changes in North Atlantic cyclone tracks and in Mediterranean Low dynamics, due to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations.     

Drought episodes over Greece as simulated by dynamical and statistical downscaling approaches

Drought over the Greek region is characterized by a strong seasonal cycle and large spatial variability. Dry spells longer than 10 consecutive days mainly characterize the duration and the intensity of Greek drought. Moreover, an increasing trend of the frequency of drought episodes has been observed, especially during the last 20 years of the 20th century. Moreover, the most recent regional circulation models (RCMs) present discrepancies compared to observed precipitation, while they are able to reproduce the main patterns of atmospheric circulation. In this study, both a statistical and a dynamical downscaling approach are used to quantify drought episodes over Greece by simulating the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) for different time steps (3, 6, and 12 months). A statistical downscaling technique based on artificial neural network is employed for the estimation of SPI over Greece, while this drought index is also estimated using the RCM precipitation for the time period of 1961–1990. Overall, it was found that the drought characteristics (intensity, duration, and spatial extent) were well reproduced by the regional climate models for long term drought indices (SPI12) while ANN simulations are better for the short-term drought indices (SPI3).

     

Rain-based factors of high agricultural impacts over Senegal. Part I: integration of local to sub-regional trends and variability

The evolution of seasonal cycle and interannual rainfall, the number of rainy days and daily rainfall types, dry spells frequency of occurrence, onset/cessation/length of rainy season, sowing dates, and the duration of the cropping period, are investigated at local (individual sites) and sub-regional scales (four different rainfall zones) using daily records of station data (83 sites) over Senegal. In the limits of a case study, these analyses complement and update previous studies conducted in the extreme Western Sahel (11?C16° N and 20° W?C10° E). The results unveil noticeable evolution of some of these rain-based factors in the recent periods as compared to the previous dry years. In the regions recording less than 800?mm/year (Sudan and Sahel sub-regions), the positive and statistically significant trends of rainfall amount are associated with new features of increasing frequency of short dry spell category, increasing number of some classes of extreme daily rainfall amounts and shifts in the peak number of rainy days. At sub-regional scales, the starting years (or change points) the magnitude and the signs of the new trends are unevenly distributed in the period post-1990. Earlier and higher amplitude changes are found at local scales and not less than one third of the sites in each sub-regional network are significantly affected. The extreme Southern sub-region exhibits no significant changes. Statistically significant trends are not observed on daily rain records ??10?mm, onset/cessation dates, successful sowing dates, rainy season length, cropping period, medium and extreme dry spell categories. Rather, some of these factors such as the successful sowing date and the cropping season length exhibit significant variability. The onset (cessation) dates of the rainy season are followed (preceded) by extreme dry spell episodes. In the perspectives of climate impact assessments on the local agriculture a sub-regional periodic synopsis of the major rain-based factors of interest to agricultural applications are provided at the end the paper. They document some important internal variability patterns to reckon with in a multi-decadal work over the 1950?C2008 period for this region.     

Power-law Relationship in Describing Temporal and Spatial Precipitation Pattern in Turkey

Summary Wet and dry spell properties of monthly rainfall series at five meteorology stations in Turkey are examined by plotting successive wet and dry month duration versus their number of occurrences on the double-logarithmic paper. Straight line relationships on such graphs show that power-laws govern the pattern of successive persistent wet and dry monthly spells. Functional power law relationships between the number of dry and wet spells for a given monthly period are derived from the available monthly precipitation data. The probability statements for wet and dry period spells are obtained from the power law expressions. Comparison of power-law behaviours at five distinct sites in Turkey provides useful interpretation about the temporal and spatial rainfall pattern. As in temperate areas such as Turkey the rainfall amounts change mostly due to one-month-long dry or wet spells. Received August 29, 1995 Revised November 9, 1995     

The distribution of rainy days in the Aegean area

Summary The object of this study is the determination of the number of rainy days in the area of the Aegean sea, based on data obtained from 14 observation stations during the period 1950–1975.The results showed considerable differences from North to South. The seasonal number of rainy days as well as that of rainy spells were examined for the period 1950–1975. The spells of rainy days play an important role in the agricultural activities, especially over the southern part of the Aegean sea basin, where the annual amounts of rainfall are insufficient.From the data was concluded that during the summer, more than four consecutive rainy days were recorded at the northern most stations only and these of infrequent occurrence; whereas during the winter, it was possible to encounter up to 15 consecutive rainy days.Finally, we give a theoretical distribution for the rainy spells for each station and for each season and year, using Polya's method. We found that this distribution fitted well the 95% of the confidence level in the majority of the cases.With 2 Figures     

Recent changes in dry spell and extreme rainfall events in Ethiopia

Summary This paper assesses recent changes in extremes of seasonal rainfall in Ethiopia based on daily rainfall data for 11 key stations over the period 1965–2002. The seasons considered are Kiremt (‘main rains’, June–September) and Belg (‘small rains’, February/March–May). The Mann-Kendall and linear regression trend tests show decreasing trends in the Kiremt and the Belg extreme intensity and maximum consecutive 5-day rains over eastern, southwestern and southern parts of Ethiopia whereas no trends are found in the remaining part of Ethiopia. In general, no trends are found in the yearly maximum length of Kiremt and Belg dry spells (days with rainfall below 1 mm) over Ethiopia.     

干湿持续期随机模拟

该文应用数据建模技术, 实现干湿期随机建模。主要包括:利用历史气象资料, 从中采集干湿期数据; 应用实测数据, 创建干湿期经验分布函数; 应用Monte Carlo方法和经验分布参数, 随机生成干湿期序列, 通过和Markov链模型输出的对比分析, 讨论生成序列的统计误差, 测试结果显示, 与两状态Markov链方法相比, 所建模型性能更好。     

Southern Quebec (Canada) summer-season heat spells over the 1941–2000 period: an assessment of observed changes

Summary Summer-season (May–September) daily maximum temperature (T _max) and daily minimum temperature (T _min) observations and three types of heat spells obtained from these temperature observations at seven weather stations located in southern Quebec (Canada) for the 60-year period from 1941 to 2000 are studied to assess temporal changes in their characteristics (i.e. frequency of occurrence, seasonal hot days and extremal durations of heat spells). Type-A and Type-B heat spells are obtained respectively from T _max and T _min observations and Type-C heat spells from simultaneous joint observations of T _max and T _min using suitable thresholds and spells of duration ≥1-day and ≥3-day. The results of this investigation show that the majority of the selected percentiles (i.e. 5P, 10P, 25P, 50P, 75P, 80P, 90P, 92P, 95P, and 98P) of T _max observations show a negative time-trend with statistically significant decreases (at 10% level) in some of the higher percentiles and in the maximal values at four out of seven stations. Almost all of the selected percentiles (same as for the T _max) and the maximal and minimal values of T _min observations show a positive trend, with statistically significant increases for all seven stations. Examination of frequencies of occurrence of heat spells, seasonal hot days and annual extremes of heat spell durations indicate that many of these characteristics of heat spells have undergone statistically significant changes over time at some of the stations for Type-A and Type-B heat spells as compared to Type-C heat spells. The Type-C heat spells are generally small in number and are found to be relatively temporally stable. More severe Type-C heat spells, i.e. the ones having T _max and T _min values simultaneously above very high thresholds and with duration ≥3-day have been rarely observed in southern Quebec.     

Spatiotemporal dry and wet spell duration distributions in southwestern Saudi Arabia

Summary Regional dry and wet spell durations within a 15 year period are mapped for the southwestern part of Saudi Arabia for summer and winter. If the number of spells is plotted versus duration a straight-line results on semi-logarithmic paper for most stations. However, a few stations exhibit two or three different slopes showing the effect of local climate. Simple regression equations are proposed for the dry or wet spell duration at any station allowing the mapping of regional variation for the entire study area. Such maps are useful tools in the assessment of the spatial and/or temporal wet and dry period duration for the area between stations. Similar maps could be developed for other parts of the world.With 10 Figures     

A verification of spatio-temporal monsoon rainfall variability across Indian region using NWP model output

Evaluation of weather forecasting systems and assessment of existing verification procedures are essential to achieve desirable seamless rainfall prediction. Prediction of wet and dry spells is quite useful in agriculture and hydrology but very few attempts have been made so far to resolve the issue using numerical model output. Performance of five state-of-the-art global atmospheric general circulation models and their ensemble mean has been examined in predicting the parameters of wet and dry spells (WSs/DSs) during monsoon period of 2008–2011 over seven subzones of the Indian region. The number of WSs across the region is found to be underestimated, while total duration and rainfall amount of WSs (DSs) overestimated (underestimated). Start of the first WS is late and ends of the last WS early in the model forecast. More uncertainty is noticed in the prediction of DS rainfall and its duration than that of the WS. The percentage area of India under wet conditions (rainfall amount over each grid is more than its daily mean monsoon rainfall) and rainwater over the wet area is overestimated by about 59 and 32 %, respectively, in all models.     

The application of a present-day climatic model to the late quaternary in southern Africa

A present-day climatic model is presented in which extended wet spells of near-decadal duration and dry spells of similar length are explained on the basis of surface and upper tropospheric circulation variations. Wet spells are shown to be the result of increased tropical atmospheric disturbances and tropical-temperate interaction, and to be linked to variations in the Walker Circulation. Conversely, dry spells are shown to result from diminished tropical activity over southern Africa, equatorward movement of westerly storm tracks and temperate perturbations in the westerlies.The present-day analogue is compared to preliminary spatial reconstructions of the climate of southern Africa over the last twenty-five millennia and is shown to have wide applicability in the explanation of the late-Quaternary palaeoclimates of the subcontinent. In particular, it is argued that the Last Glacial Maximum was associated with northward-displaced circulation conditions similar to those of present-day dry spells over the summer rainfall region, whereas the extensive moist conditions that prevailed for several thousand years after 9000 BP were analogous to present-day wet spell conditions with little apparent displacement of major circulation features.     

Fidelity of Regional Climate Model v4.6 in capturing seasonal and subseasonal variability of Indian summer monsoon

Climate modeling studies in the context of Indian summer monsoon (ISM) variability have usually been performed on the seasonal and interannual timescales. The present study assesses the fidelity of the Regional Climate Model (RegCM v4.6) in capturing the subseasonal active and break spells along with the seasonal mean rainfall during the ISM season. The model fields are obtained from 24 years (1982–2005) of simulation and validated against the observations and latest reanalyzed ERA5 data products. Our analysis indicates that RegCM v4.6 fairly captures the large scale features of ISM and improvement in seasonal rainfall is noted as compared to its precedent RegCM v4.4. At subseasonal timescales, though the model captures the active and break spells of ISM, the length and frequency of these events seem inconsistent as compared to the observations. Occurrences of breaks and associated circulation features are mostly consistent but the active spells are significantly misconstrued in the model. The dry air intrusion from the western region and lack of monsoon low over the mainland and Bay of Bengal seem to suppress the precipitation in the model. This subseasonal bias might persist due to systematic errors linked to the lack of ocean coupling, inefficiency of land surface and cumulus parameterization schemes in the model. Overall, RegCM v4.6 offers improvements at seasonal timescale but needs further improvements to realistically represent the subseasonal variability of ISM.     

Long-term rainfall characteristics in the Mzingwane catchment of south-western Zimbabwe

Rainfall characteristics during the annual rainy season are explored for the Mzingwane catchment of south-western Zimbabwe, for both historic period (1886–1906) and more recent times (1950–2015), based on available daily and monthly precipitation series. Annual and seasonal rainfall trends are determined using the modified Mann-Kendall test, magnitude of trends test and Sen’s slope estimator. Rainfall variability is quantified using the coefficient of variation (CV), precipitation concentration index (PCI) and standard precipitation index (SPI). Results suggest that contemporary mean annual rainfall may not have changed from that measured during the historic period of 1886–1906. However, the number of rainy days (≥ 1 mm) has decreased by 34%, thus suggesting much more concentrated and increased rainfall intensity. A notable shift in both the onset and cessation dates of the rainy season is recorded, particularly during the twenty-first century, which has resulted in a significantly reduced (p < 0.05) length of the rainy season. The combination of a reduced number of rainy days (≥ 1 mm) and a shortened rainy season suggests that long intra-season dry spells have become more common through time and have considerable negative consequences for agriculture and wetland ecosystem in the region. In addition, high spatio-temporal rainfall variability and seasonal PCI values indicate strong seasonality in the rainy season. Based on the SPI results, the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) strongly influences rainfall variability. The results further suggest high uncertainty in rain season characteristics, which requires effective planning for water needs.