Winter daily precipitation variability over the South West Peninsula of England

Summary Daily precipitation totals for five consecutive winters (1995–99) were obtained for 127 stations in Devon and Cornwall to explore spatial variations in rainfall. This dataset was assembled with the explicit aim of assessing the appropriateness of current arrangements for daily rainfall forecasts in the SW Peninsula of England. Firstly, the extent to which fundamental geographic variables determine precipitation was investigated by correlating each station’s mean wet day amount (WDA) and percentage of wet days (PERWET) with altitude, latitude, longitude and distance from the coast. Altitude emerged as the most important control on precipitation, with a two-variable multiple linear regression model containing altitude and latitude being able to explain 39.3% (29.8%) of the variance in WDA (PERWET) values. The main spatial modes of variability in the region’s precipitation field were identified by using S mode principal components analysis (PCA). Six PCs were statistically significant and explained 83.4% of the geographic variance in precipitation over Devon and Cornwall. The components were interpreted physically by examining the synoptic flow environment (pressure and wind anomalies) on days with high positive and negative PC scores. Explaining 25.1% of the variance, the most important pattern (PC1) depicts a location’s degree of exposure or shelter in a moist, unstable W–NW airflow. The higher PCs describe modes of variability that accentuate rainfall in East Devon (PC2), Cornwall (PC3), Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor (PC4), South Devon (PC5), and North Cornwall and NW Devon (PC6) relative to other areas of the Peninsula. Finally, a winter precipitation regionalisation was derived by applying agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis to the PC loadings of the significant components. In most cases, the six coherent precipitation regions do not reflect the familiar administrative or topographic areas used for forecasting, suggesting that forecasts issued on such a basis are likely to be insufficiently detailed and misleading.     

Influence of ENSO and the South Atlantic Ocean on climate predictability over Southeastern South America

We perform a systematic study of the predictability of surface air temperature and precipitation in Southeastern South America (SESA) using ensembles of AGCM simulations, focusing on the role of the South Atlantic and its interaction with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). It is found that the interannual predictability of climate over SESA is strongly tied to ENSO showing high predictability during the seasons and periods when there is ENSO influence. The most robust ENSO signal during the whole period of study (1949–2006) is during spring when warm events tend to increase the precipitation over Southeastern South America. Moreover, the predictability shows large inter-decadal changes: for the period 1949–1977, the surface temperature shows high predictability during late fall and early winter. On the other hand, for the period 1978–2006, the temperature shows (low) predictability only during winter, while the precipitation shows not only high predictability in spring but also in fall. Furthermore, it is found that the Atlantic does not directly affect the climate over SESA. However, the experiments where air–sea coupling is allowed in the south Atlantic suggest that this ocean can act as a moderator of the ENSO influence. During warm ENSO events the ocean off Brazil and Uruguay tends to warm up through changes in the atmospheric heat fluxes, altering the atmospheric anomalies and the predictability of climate over SESA. The main effect of the air–sea coupling is to strengthen the surface temperature anomalies over SESA; changes in precipitation are more subtle. We further found that the thermodynamic coupling can increase or decrease the predictability. For example, the air–sea coupling significantly increases the skill of the model in simulating the surface air temperature anomalies for most seasons during period 1949–1977, but tends to decrease the skill in late fall during period 1978–2006. This decrease in skill during late fall in 1978–2006 is found to be due to a wrong simulation of the remote ENSO signal that is further intensified by the local air–sea coupling in the south Atlantic. Thus, our results suggest that climate models used for seasonal prediction should simulate correctly not only the remote ENSO signal, but also the local air–sea thermodynamic coupling.     

Interannual variability of the South Pacific Convergence Zone and implications for tropical cyclone genesis

The interannual variability of the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) and its influence on tropical cyclone (TC) genesis in the South Pacific are investigated using observations and ERA40 reanalysis over the 1979?C2002 period. In austral summer, the SPCZ displays four typical structures at interannual timescales. The first three are characterized by a diagonal orientation of the SPCZ and account for 85% of the summer seasons. One is close to climatology and the other two exhibit a 3° northward or southward departure from the SPCZ climatological position. In contrast, the fourth one, that only encompasses three austral summer seasons (the extreme 1982/1983 and 1997/1998 El Ni?o events and the moderate 1991/1992 El Ni?o event), displays very peculiar behaviour where the SPCZ largely departs from its climatological position and is zonally oriented. Variability of the western/central Pacific equatorial sea surface temperature (SST) is shown to modulate moisture transport south of the equator, thereby strongly constraining the location of the SPCZ. The SPCZ location is also shown to strongly modulate the atmospheric circulation variability in the South Pacific with specific patterns for each class. However, independently of its wide year-to-year excursions, the SPCZ is always collocated with the zero relative vorticity at low levels while the maximum vorticity axis lies 6° to the south of the SPCZ position. This coherent atmospheric organisation in the SPCZ region is shown to constrain tropical cyclogenesis to occur preferentially within 10° south of the SPCZ location as this region combines all the large-scale atmospheric conditions that favour the breeding of TCs. This analysis also reveals that cyclogenesis in the central Pacific (in the vicinity of French Polynesia) only occurs when the SPCZ displays a zonal orientation while this observation was previously attributed to El Ni?o years in general. Different characteristics of El Ni?o Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-related Pacific equatorial warming are shown to impact differently on the SPCZ position, suggesting that for regional scales, such as the South Pacific, the SPCZ classification is more appropriate than a simple ENSO index to characterize TC interannual variability. These findings suggest that forecasting the strength of El Ni?o through SST variations in the eastern Pacific may not be sufficient to accurately predict cyclogenesis in the South Pacific, especially east of the dateline.     

Indo-Pacific remote forcing in summer rainfall variability over the South China Sea

This study investigates summer rainfall variability in the South China Sea (SCS) region and the roles of remote sea surface temperature (SST) forcing in the tropical Indian and Pacific Ocean regions. The SCS summer rainfall displays a positive and negative relationship with simultaneous SST in the equatorial central Pacific (ECP) and the North Indian Ocean (NIO), respectively. Positive ECP SST anomalies induce an anomalous low-level cyclone over the SCS-western North Pacific as a Rossby-wave type response, leading to above-normal precipitation over northern SCS. Negative NIO SST anomalies contribute to anomalous cyclonic winds over the western North Pacific by an anomalous east–west vertical circulation north of the equator, favoring more rainfall over northern SCS. These NIO SST anomalies are closely related to preceding La Niña and El Niño events through the “atmospheric bridge”. Thus, the NIO SST anomalies serve as a medium for an indirect impact of preceding ECP SST anomalies on the SCS summer rainfall variability. The ECP SST influence is identified to be dominant after 1990 and the NIO SST impact is relatively more important during 1980s. These Indo-Pacific SST effects are further investigated by conducting numerical experiments with an atmospheric general circulation model. The consistency between the numerical experiments and the observations enhances the credibility of the Indo-Pacific SST influence on the SCS summer rainfall variability.     

Precipitation over eastern South America and the South Atlantic Sea surface temperature during neutral ENSO periods

The dominant mode of coupled variability over the South Atlantic Ocean is known as “South Atlantic Dipole” (SAD) and is characterized by a dipole in sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies with centers over the tropical and the extratropical South Atlantic. Previous studies have shown that variations in SST related to SAD modulate large-scale patterns of precipitation over the Atlantic Ocean. Here we show that variations in the South Atlantic SST are associated with changes in daily precipitation over eastern South America. Rain gauge precipitation, satellite derived sea surface temperature and reanalysis data are used to investigate the variability of the subtropical and tropical South Atlantic and impacts on precipitation. SAD phases are assessed by performing Singular value decomposition analysis of sea level pressure and SST anomalies. We show that during neutral El Niño Southern Oscillation events, SAD plays an important role in modulating cyclogenesis and the characteristics of the South Atlantic Convergence Zone. Positive SST anomalies over the extratropical South Atlantic (SAD negative phase) are related to increased cyclogenesis near southeast Brazil as well as the migration of extratropical cyclones further north. As a consequence, these systems organize convection and increase precipitation over eastern South America.     

Generalized extreme wind speed distributions in South America over the Atlantic Ocean region

Statistical analysis of extreme values is applied to wind data from National Centers for Environmental Prediction and National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis grid points over the ocean region bounded at 23°S and 40°W and 42°W towards the south and southeastern Brazilian coast. The period of analysis goes from 1975 to 2006. The generalized extreme value and generalized Pareto distributions are employed for annual and daily maxima, respectively. The Pareto?CPoisson point process characterization is also used to analyze peaks over threshold. Return levels for 10, 25, 50, and 100?years are calculated at each grid point. However, most of the reanalysis data fall within 1?C10-year return periods, suggesting that hazardous wind speed with low probability (return periods of 50?C100) have rarely measured in this period. Wide confidence intervals on these levels show that there is not enough information to make predictions with any degree of certainty to return periods over 100?years. Low extremal index (??) values are found for excess wind speeds over a high threshold, indicating the occurrence of consecutively high peaks. In order to obtain realistic uncertainty information concerning inferences associated with threshold excesses, a declustering method is performed, which separates the excesses into clusters, thereby rendering the extreme values more independent.     

Summer precipitation variability over South America on long and short intraseasonal timescales

A dipole pattern in convection between the South Atlantic convergence zone and the subtropical plains of southeastern South America characterizes summer intraseasonal variability over the region. The dipole pattern presents two main bands of temporal variability, with periods between 10 and 30 days, and 30 and 90 days; each influenced by different large-scale dynamical forcings. The dipole activity on the 30–90-day band is related to an eastward traveling wavenumber-1 structure in both OLR and circulation anomalies in the tropics, similar to that associated with the Madden–Julian oscillation. The dipole is also related to a teleconnection pattern extended along the South Pacific between Australia and South America. Conversely, the dipole activity on the 10–30-day band does not seem to be associated with tropical convection anomalies. The corresponding circulation anomalies exhibit, in the extratropics, the structure of Rossby-like wave trains, although their sources are not completely clear.     

South Australian rainfall variability and climate extremes

Rainfall extremes over South Australia are connected with broad-scale atmospheric rearrangements associated with strong meridional sea surface temperature (SST) gradients in the eastern Indian Ocean. Thirty-seven years of winter radiosonde data is used to calculate a time series of precipitable water (PW) and convective available potential energy (CAPE) in the atmosphere. Principle component analysis on the parameters of CAPE and PW identify key modes of variability that are spatially and seasonally consistent with tropospheric processes over Australia. The correlation of the leading principle component of winter PW to winter rainfall anomalies reveal the spatial structure of the northwest cloudband and fronts that cross the southern half of the continent during winter. Similarly the second and third principle components, respectively, reveal the structures of the less frequent northern and continental cloudbands with remarkable consistency. 850 hPa-level wind analysis shows that during dry seasons, anomalous offshore flow over the northwest of Australia inhibits advection of moisture into the northwest, while enhanced subsidence from stronger anticyclonic circulation over the southern half of the continent reduces CAPE. This coincides with a southward shift of the subtropical ridge resulting in frontal systems passing well to the south of the continent, thus producing less frequent interaction with moist air advected from the tropics. Wet winters are the reverse, where a weaker meridional pressure gradient to the south of the continent allows rain-bearing fronts to reach lower latitudes. The analysis of SSTs in the Indian Ocean indicate that anomalous warm (cool) waters in the southeast Indian Ocean coincide with a southward (northward) shift in the subtropical ridge during dry (wet) seasons.     

东亚、东南亚、南亚地区降水的年变化和年际变化

本文应用了1951—1980年4—9月月平均和1961—1970年4—9月旬平均降水资料,研究了东亚、南亚和东南亚降水的年变化和年际变化,分析了中国东部、西部降水差异及长江流域夏季旱涝的特征.结果指出,东亚、南亚和东南亚4—9月200mm以上大雨区分布的总趋势呈西南-东北向,它和西南季风的走向近于一致.在这条大雨带之中,包括了三种不同类型的降水.此外,中国江淮地区旬降水量在7—9月存在周期约为20天左右的准周期振荡现象,它和中国西部的降水分布完全不同.中国华南和华中的降水与El Nino现象具有相反的关系.统计结果表明,长江中下游夏季发生持续性多雨和持续性少雨的机率只有23％,大部分年份属于正常降水年份.最后也讨论了影响长江中下游地区夏季旱涝的环流因素.     

Influence of the South Atlantic convergence zone and SouthAtlantic Sea surface temperature on interannual summerrainfall variability in Southeastern South America

Summary  In subtropical Argentina, Paraguay and southern Brazil, precipitation is most abundant during summer but its interannual variability is large. At this time a zone of low-level convergence, upper-level divergence, and intense convection is developed to the north of this area. This feature is known as the South Atlantic convergence zone (SACZ) and seems to be related to the interannual variability of summer rainfall to its south. The aim of this work is to document this relationship. Reduced (increased) precipitation in southern Brazil, most of Uruguay and northeastern Argentina is associated with a strong (weak) SACZ and a northward (southward) displacement of it, while increased (reduced) rainfall occurs further south in subtropical Argentina. Also, warm (cold) SST in the region 20° S–40° S and west of 30° W is likely accompanied by a southward (northward) shift of the SACZ. Aside of this relation with the SACZ that affect on the precipitation field of Southeastern South America, the proximate Atlantic Ocean SST seems to force the precipitation over this region by other mechanisms as well. The result of this additional SST forcing is to enhance the signal of the SACZ in northeastern Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil and to oppose the SACZ effect in southern subtropical Argentina. Received July 24, 1999 Revised July 5, 2000     

SST variability in the South Indian Ocean and associated circulation and rainfall patterns over Southern Africa

Summary A general circulation model is used to study the response of the atmosphere to an idealised sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly pattern (warm throughout the southern midlatitudes, cool in the tropics) in the South Indian Ocean region. The anomaly imposed on monthly SST climatology captures the essence of patterns observed in the South Indian Ocean during both ENSO events and multidecadal epochs, and facilitates diagnosis of the model response. A previous study with this anomaly imposed in the model examined differences in the response between that on the seasonal scale (favours enhancement of the original SST anomaly) and that on the decadal scale (favours damping of the anomaly). The current study extends that work firstly by comparing the response on the intraseasonal, seasonal and interannual scales, and secondly, by assessing the changes in the circulation and rainfall over the adjoining African landmass.It is found that the atmospheric response is favourable for enhancement of the original SST anomaly on scales up to, and including, annual. However, as the scale becomes interannual (i.e., 15–21 months after imposition of the anomaly), the model response suggests that damping of the original SST anomaly becomes likely. Compared to the shorter scale response, the perturbation pressure and wind distribution on the interannual scale is shifted poleward, and is more reminiscent of the decadal response. Winds are now stronger over the warm anomaly in the southern midlatitudes suggesting enhanced surface fluxes, upper ocean mixing, and consequently, a damping of the anomaly.Examination of the circulation and rainfall patterns indicates that there are significant anomalies over large parts of southern Africa during the spring, summer and autumn seasons for both short (intraseasonal to interannual) and decadal scales. It appears that rainfall anomalies are associated with changes in the advection of moist tropical air from the Indian Ocean and its related convergence over southern Africa. Over eastern equatorial Africa, the austral autumn season (the main wet season) showed rainfall increases on all time scales, while parts of central to eastern subtropical southern Africa were dry. The signals during summer were more varied. Spring showed generally dry conditions over the eastern half of southern Africa on both short and decadal time scales, with wet areas confined to the west. In all cases, the magnitude of the rainfall anomalies accumulated over a 90 day season were of the order of 90–180 mm, and therefore represent a significant fraction of the annual total of many areas. It appears that relatively modest SST anomalies in the South Indian Ocean can lead to sizeable rainfall anomalies in the model. Although precipitation in general circulation models tends to be less accurately simulated than many other variables, the model results, together with previous observational work, emphasize the need for ongoing monitoring of SST in this region.With 14 Figures     

Summer precipitation variability over Southeastern South America in a global warming scenario

December–January–February (DJF) rainfall variability in southeastern South America (SESA) is studied in 18 coupled general circulation models from the WCRP/CMIP3 dataset, for present climate and the SRES-A1B climate change scenario. The analysis is made in terms of properties of the first leading pattern of rainfall variability in the region, characterized by a dipole-like structure with centers of action in the SESA and South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ) regions. The study was performed to address two issues: how rainfall variability in SESA would change in a future climate and how much of that change explains the projected increasing trends in the summer mean rainfall in SESA identified in previous works. Positive (negative) dipole events were identified as those DJF seasons with above (below) normal rainfall in SESA and below (above) normal rainfall in the SACZ region. Results obtained from the multi-model ensemble confirm that future rainfall variability in SESA has a strong projection on the changes of seasonal dipole pattern activity, associated with an increase of the frequency of the positive phase. In addition, the frequency increase of positive dipole phase in the twenty first century seems to be associated with an increase of both frequency and intensity of positive SST anomalies in the equatorial Pacific, and with a Rossby wave train-like anomaly pattern linking that ocean basin to South America, which regionally induces favorable conditions for moisture transport convergence and rainfall increase in SESA.     

Temporal and spatial variability of rainfall over Greece

Recent studies have showed that there is a significant decrease in rainfall over Greece during the last half of the pervious century, following an overall decrease of the precipitation at the eastern Mediterranean. However, during the last decade an increase in rainfall was observed in most regions of the country, contrary to the general circulation climate models forecasts. An updated high-resolution dataset of monthly sums and annual daily maxima records derived from 136 stations during the period 1940–2012 allowed us to present some new evidence for the observed change and its statistical significance. The statistical framework used to determine the significance of the slopes in annual rain was not limited to the time independency assumption (Mann-Kendall test), but we also investigated the effect of short- and long-term persistence through Monte Carlo simulation. Our findings show that (a) change occurs in different scales; most regions show a decline since 1950, an increase since 1980 and remain stable during the last 15 years; (b) the significance of the observed decline is highly dependent to the statistical assumptions used; there are indications that the Mann-Kendall test may be the least suitable method; and (c) change in time is strongly linked with the change in space; for scales below 40 years, relatively close regions may develop even opposite trends, while in larger scales change is more uniform.     

On the relations of the rainfall variability and distribution with the mean rainfall over India

Summary Along with averages, rainfall variability and distribution are important climatological information. In this study, using 114 years (1871–1984) data of 306 stations, it is demonstrated that the variability and spatial distribution of annual, summer monsoon and monthly rainfall are highly dependent upon the respective period mean rainfall variation over India. The magnitude of three selected absolute measures of variability, e.g. standard deviation, absolute mean deviation and mean absolute interannual variability is found to increase linearly with mean rainfall.In order to describe the relation between the rainfall frequency distribution and the mean rainfall, a linear regression between the rainfall amount expected with a specified exceedance/non-exceedance probability and the mean rainfall amount is presented. Highly significant linear curves for a large number of probabilities specified in an average probability diagram clearly demonstrate the dependence of the rainfall frequency distribution on mean rainfall over India.With 8 Figures