Developments and prospects in synoptic climatology

Yarnal, Brent; Comrie, Andrew C.; Frakes, Brent; Brown, David P.

doi:10.1002/joc.675

Cited by 261 publications

(179 citation statements)

References 261 publications

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“…For this reason, efforts have been dedicated to the development of classification methods based on different catalogues of weather types (Yarnal et al, 2001). The synoptic spatial scale has been widely used for regional precipitation modelling (Romero et al, 1999;Phillips and McGregor, 2001;Svensson et al, 2002;Santos et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of atmospheric circulation at different spatial scales on winter drought variability through a semi‐arid climatic gradient in Northeast Spain

Vicente‐Serrano

López‐Moreno

2006

Intl Journal of Climatology

126

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This paper analyses the spatial and temporal variability of winter droughts in a semi-arid geographic gradient in Northeast Spain, from the Pyrenees in the north to the Mediterranean coastland in the south. Droughts that occurred between 1952 and 1999 were analysed by means of the Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI). The influence of the weather-type frequency and of the general North Atlantic atmospheric circulation patterns was analysed. The results indicate that winter droughts show an important spatial variability in the study area, differentiating three well-defined patterns. These correspond to the Pyrenees, the centre of the Ebro Valley, and the Mediterranean coastland. General negative trends in winter SPI have been found, which are indicative of the increase in winter drought conditions in the study area. Nevertheless, important spatial differences have also been recorded. Dominant north-south gradients in the influence of weather types are shown. Moreover, the negative trends in winter-SPI values agree with the negative trend in the frequency of the weather types prone to cause precipitation, such as the C, SW and W weather types and the increase in the frequency of A weather types. Nevertheless, in the Mediterranean coastland, the positive trend in SPI values agrees with the increase in the frequency of weather types of the east (E, SE), which are prone to cause precipitation in this area. Interannual variations in the frequency of the different weather types have been highly determined by different general atmospheric circulation patterns, mainly the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Nevertheless, the correlation between the time series of weather-type frequency and the winter SPI is higher than that found between the SPI and the NAO. Thus, although the interannual NAO variability explains a high percentage of the interannual differences in the frequency of different weather types, it is not sufficient to explain the spatial and temporal variability of droughts, which respond better to atmospheric variability at more detailed (synoptic) spatial scales.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of atmospheric circulation at different spatial scales on winter drought variability through a semi‐arid climatic gradient in Northeast Spain

Vicente‐Serrano

López‐Moreno

2006

Intl Journal of Climatology

126

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“…As Yarnal et al (2001) define synoptic climatology nowadays, the establishment of empirical relationships between atmospheric circulation and local weather is a main aspect. In this way, atmospheric circulation catalogues try to explain environmental or human phenomena (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Daily atmospheric circulation catalogue for western Europe using multivariate techniques

Esteban

Martín‐Vide

Mases³

2006

Intl Journal of Climatology

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This study uses principal component analysis (PCA) and clustering (CL) techniques to characterize the daily surface synoptic circulation patterns over the region 30°N-60°N by 30°W-15°E, for the period 1960-2001 using the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis Project data. The methodology used, previously proposed by Esteban et al. (2005) to identify heavy snowfall days over Andorra (Pyrenees), involves a pre-processing approach consisting of a spatial standardization of the data used for the rotated PCA on S-mode analysis and correlation matrix, and Varimax rotation of the retained components. For the clustering process, an alternative approximation based on the PCA results (positive and negative phases) to decide the centroids and the number of groups for the K-means clustering is shown, followed by the rejection of the iterations for this non-hierarchical algorithm. Twenty sea level pressure (SLP) circulation patterns were obtained, with all days classified. The composite maps for SLP and 500 hPa geopotential height (GPH), the monthly distribution, and the long-term variability for each of the circulation patterns is obtained. The results are consistent with the subjective knowledge of the daily atmospheric circulation over the area treated, and seem to be an easy and accessible way for the synoptic studies of short-lived (from weekly to daily) phenomena. In addition, this methodology appears to be applicable to all climatic areas of the world, as it characterizes well enough the complex circulation variability at mid-latitudes, including the surface low-pressure gradient patterns normally located over the Mediterranean in summer.

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“…Initially developed by Jenkinson and Collison (1977) and Jones et al (1993), they have been applied with a view to automatically reproduce the subjective classification developed by Lamb (1972) for the British Isles, and improved by Yarnal et al (2001). Although such methods have been used fairly satisfactorily in many different applications (Goodess and Palutikov, 1998;Trigo and DaCamara, 2000), this discrete classification does have certain subjective aspects and affords little information about the strength of the systems in circulation or about wind intensity, even though both aspects clearly influence the resulting information.…”

Section: Daily Circulation Weather Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of weather types on hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Dávila¹,

Soriano²,

Llorente³

et al. 2013

Atmósfera

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El objetivo de este estudio consiste en evaluar la relación entre el riesgo de ingreso hospitalario por enfermedades respiratorias habidos en hospitales de Castilla-La Mancha, España, y los tipos diarios de masas de aire (situaciones meteorológicas) presentes durante el periodo 2000-2006, utilizando un enfoque climatológico sinóptico. Se determinaron los principales tipos de circulación atmosférica presentes en la zona para el invierno y la primavera (estaciones en que las admisiones hospitalarias de carácter respiratorio son máximas), así como sus distribuciones de frecuencia. Se analizan las características principales de los ingresos hospitalarios y su distribución en los siete años estudiados, junto con las distribuciones de frecuencia clasificadas por sexo y edades, estaciones climáticas, meses y días de la semana. Además, se realiza un análisis entre la clasificación obtenida de masas de aire y los ingresos hospitalarios, mediante la utilización de un índice de admisión o tasa relativa. Los resultados revelan diferentes respuestas en la tasa de ingreso por enfermedades respiratorias frente a los ocho tipos de masas de aire identificados en invierno y en primavera. En invierno, las tres masas de aire dominantes que se asocian, las circulaciones del suroeste, las anticiclónicas y las híbridas anticiclónicas del suroeste, presentan valores 1.5 veces superiores al promedio de ingresos respectivos, mientras que en la primavera no se observan diferencias significativas en el número de admisiones frente a los tipos de tiempo. ABSTRACTThe aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between the risk of hospital admission for respiratory diseases (RD) and the daily weather types during the period 2000-2006. A synoptic climatological approach is used to investigate links between air-mass types (weather situations) and all respiratory hospital admissions in the Castilla-La Mancha (CLM) area in Spain. This afforded the main circulation weather types (CWTs) for the winter and spring periods (since respiratory hospital admissions reached their maximum during these seasons) and the frequency distributions of these types were analyzed. A summary of the main characteristics of the hospital admission series and their distribution over the seven years studied, together with the frequency distributions of the admissions classified by sex and ages, for season, month and for each day of the week, is reported. In addition, a comparison between air-mass classification and hospital admissions is made using an admission index (AI). The results reveal different responses of respiratory admission rates to the eight air-mass types identified in winter and in spring. In winter, three air massess southwesterly (SW), anti-cyclonic (A) and hybrid anti-cyclonic southwesterly (HASW), are associated with values 1.5 times higher than the respective average admission rates, while in spring no significant differences are seen.

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Developments and prospects in synoptic climatology

Cited by 261 publications

References 261 publications

The influence of atmospheric circulation at different spatial scales on winter drought variability through a semi‐arid climatic gradient in Northeast Spain

The influence of atmospheric circulation at different spatial scales on winter drought variability through a semi‐arid climatic gradient in Northeast Spain

Daily atmospheric circulation catalogue for western Europe using multivariate techniques

Effects of weather types on hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

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