Precipitation trends in the island of Ireland using a dense, homogenized, observational dataset

Abstract

A dense monthly precipitation dataset of Ireland and Northern Ireland was homogenized with several modern homogenization methods. The efficiency of these homogenizations was tested by examining the similarity of homogenization results both in the real data homogenization and in the homogenization of a simulated dataset. The analysis of homogenization results shows that the real dataset is characterized by a large number of, but mostly small, nonclimatic biases, and a moderate reduction of such biases can be achieved with homogenization. Finally, a combination of the ACMANT and Climatol homogenization results was applied to improve the data accuracy before the trend calculations. These two methods were selected for their proven high accuracy, missing data tolerance and ability to complete time series via the infilling of missing values before the trend calculations. Metadata were used within the Climatol method. To facilitate this analysis the study area was split into smaller climatic regions by using the Ward clustering method. Five climatic zones consistent with the known spatial patterns of precipitation in Ireland were established. Linear regression fitting and the Mann-Kendall test were applied. Low frequency fluctuations were also examined by applying a Gaussian filter. The results show that the precipitation amount generally increases in the study area, particularly in the northwestern region. The most significant increasing trends for the whole study period (1941-2010) are found for late winter and spring precipitation, as well as for the annual totals. In the period from the early 1970s the increase of precipitation is general in all seasons of the year except in winter, but the statistical significance of this increase is weak.

The effect of spring grass availability and silage supplementation on dairy cow performance and dry matter intake during early lactation

“…In the current study, average soil temperature from November to January was 12% higher in year 2 compared to year 1 which resulted in higher spring grass availability in year 2 (HG = + 346 kg DM/ha and LG = + 123 kg DM/ ha), similar to Claffey et al (2020a) and Looney et al (2021). Recent trends have shown increased rainfall in spring (Domonkos et al, 2020), as experienced in the current study with 93 mm more rain in February of year 1 compared to year 2 (Table 2), which can create difficult grazing conditions and reduced grass utilization leading to restriction in intake during Table 9. The effect of the high grass (HG) and low grass (LG) treatment during period 2 (week 7-12) on animal production during period 3 (week 13-16) in years 1 and 2 of the experiment early lactation if cows are not supplemented.…”

Precipitation homogenization and trends in the Usumacinta River Basin (Mexico‐Guatemala) over the period 1959–2018

“…In the last few years, climatol has been widely applied to homogenize a variety of daily and monthly climate databases. In particular, it has shown its efficiency in studying air temperature, precipitation, and wind speed series worldwide (e.g., Chile, Meseguer‐Ruiz et al, 2018; Australia, Azorin‐Molina et al, 2019; Israel, Yosef et al, 2019; Ireland, Coll et al, 2020; Domonkos et al, 2020; Iran, Javanshiri et al, 2021; Canada, James et al, 2022) and is recommended as one of the top homogenization methods (Coll et al, 2020; Guijarro et al, 2023).…”

Rubidium measured by XRF as a predictor of soil particle size in limestone and siliceous parent materials

“…Also, Ireland has a mild maritime climate due to its location on the North East side of the Atlantic Ocean where it forms the western fringe of Europe (Creamer and O'Sullivan 2018). Thus, precipitation is higher in the west and declines as it tracks to the east (Domonkos et al 2020). The country's weather is characterised by cool winters and mild summers and has a varied rainfall pattern with the highest annual precipitation (> 3000 mm) recorded in the mountainous regions of the west and south west, and annual precipitation is < 750 mm in parts of the east (Creamer and O'Sullivan 2018;Domonkos et al 2020).…”