Doubled length of western European summer heat waves since 1880

Della-Marta, Paul M.; Haylock, M. R.; Luterbacher, Jürg; Wanner, Heinz

doi:10.1029/2007jd008510

Cited by 431 publications

(375 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(113 reference statements)

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“…These findings suggest that moderate heat waves have increased in number and length from 1960, but any changes in the most extreme heat waves are unclear. These results are in qualitative agreement with other studies [5,7,13]. The stations with significant trends in heat wave numbers (Figure 2a) are spread around the UK.…”

Section: Trends In Heat Wavessupporting

confidence: 82%

“…One study [13] stated that heat waves had become more frequent in May and June over the period 1878-2001, although it was unclear how this conclusion was reached. Another study [5] detected increases in the lengths of the longest heat waves in the CET over a similar period . It is clear from these studies that the full extent of trends in heat wave characteristics and their variations in the UK is not apparent and more investigation is needed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One study [5] found that average summer heat wave lengths in western Europe had increased by about 1.3 days per century between 1880 and 2005. Another [6] identified an increase in the frequency of heat waves of 0.6 per decade in the Spanish central plateau between 1961 and 2010.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Historical Trends and Variability in Heat Waves in the United Kingdom

et al. 2017

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Increases in numbers and lengths of heat waves have previously been identified in global temperature records, including locations within Europe. However, studies of changes in UK heat wave characteristics are limited. Historic daily maximum temperatures from 29 weather stations with records exceeding 85 years in length across the country were examined. Heat waves were defined as periods with unusually high temperatures for each station, even if the temperatures would not be considered warm in an absolute sense. Positive trends in numbers and lengths of heat waves were identified at some stations. However, for some stations in the south east of England, lengths of very long heat waves (over 10 days) had declined since the 1970s, whereas the lengths of shorter heat waves had increased slightly. Considerable multidecadal variability in heat wave numbers and lengths was apparent at all stations. Logistic regression, using a subset of eight stations with records beginning in the nineteenth century, suggested an association between the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the variability in heat wave numbers and lengths, with the summertime North Atlantic Oscillation playing a smaller role. The results were robust against different temperature thresholds.

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Section: Trends In Heat Wavessupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Historical Trends and Variability in Heat Waves in the United Kingdom

et al. 2017

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“…Previous observations-based studies have shown warming trends in both average temperatures [e.g., Vose et al, 2005aVose et al, , 2005bLawrimore et al, 2011] and temperature extremes . However, there is conflicting evidence -mostly based on regional analysis -as to whether the response in extremes is simply a result of a shifting mean [e.g., Griffiths et al, 2005;Simolo et al, 2011] or whether changes in other "higher order moments" of the daily temperature are also occurring [Della-Marta et al, 2007;Ballester et al, 2010]. Assessment of the probability distribution of daily temperatures for the globe would help address this question.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The shifting probability distribution of global daytime and night‐time temperatures

Donat¹,

Alexander²

2012

Geophysical Research Letters

286

202

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[1] Using a global observational dataset of daily gridded maximum and minimum temperatures we investigate changes in the respective probability density functions of both variables using two 30-year periods; 1951-1980 and 1981-2010. The results indicate that the distributions of both daily maximum and minimum temperatures have significantly shifted towards higher values in the latter period compared to the earlier period in almost all regions, whereas changes in variance are spatially heterogeneous and mostly less significant. However asymmetry appears to have decreased but is altered in such a way that it has become skewed towards the hotter part of the distribution. Changes are greater for daily minimum (night-time) temperatures than for daily maximum (daytime) temperatures. As expected, these changes have had the greatest impact on the extremes of the distribution and we conclude that the distribution of global daily temperatures has indeed become "more extreme" since the middle of the 20th century. Citation: Donat, M. G., and L. V.Alexander (2012), The shifting probability distribution of global daytime and night-time temperatures, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39,

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“…cold spells, frost days) have become less frequent (Klein Tank et al, 2002;Map 5.6). The average length of summer heat waves over Western Europe doubled over the period 1880 to 2005 and the frequency of hot days almost tripled (Della-Marta et al, 2007).…”

Section: Past Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%