Reconstruction of Central European daily weather types back to 1763

Schwander, Mikhaël; Brönnimann, Stefan; Delaygue, Gilles; Rohrer, Mario; Auchmann, Renate; Brugnara, Yuri

doi:10.1002/joc.4974

Cited by 40 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 53 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Characteristics of the (Schwander et al, ) circulation types: (a) mean sea level pressure based on 20CR, 1950–2009, (b) average precipitation based on E‐OBS data, 1950–2009, (c) monthly frequency (days per month), and (d) mean daily precipitation sum averaged over the Greater Alpine Region based on E‐OBS data, 1950–2009. The boxplots are constructed using the 0.25 and 0.75 quantiles for the bounding box, and the upper whisker extends from the bounding box to the highest value that is within 1.5 times the interquartile range; dots represent outliers beyond this range.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling Drivers of Meteorological Droughts in the European Greater Alpine Region During the Last Two Centuries

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study investigates the atmospheric drivers of severe precipitation deficits in the Greater Alpine Region during the last 210 years utilizing a daily atmospheric circulation type reconstruction. Precipitation deficit tends to be higher during periods with more frequent anticyclonic (dry) and less frequent cyclonic (wet) circulation types, as would be expected. However, circulation characteristics are not the main drivers of summer precipitation deficit. Dry soils in the warm season tend to limit precipitation, which is particularly the case for circulation types that are sensitive to a soil moisture‐precipitation feedback. This mechanism is of specific relevance in explaining the major drought decades of the 1860s and 1940s. Both episodes show large negative precipitation anomalies in spring followed by increasing frequencies of circulation types sensitive to soil moisture precipitation feedbacks. The dry springs of the 1860s were likely caused by circulation characteristics that were quite different from those of recent decades as a consequence of the large spatial extent of Arctic sea ice at the end of the Little Ice Age. On the other hand, the dry springs of the 1940s developed under a persistent positive pressure anomaly across Western and Central Europe, triggered by positive sea surface temperatures in the western subtropical Atlantic.

show abstract

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling Drivers of Meteorological Droughts in the European Greater Alpine Region During the Last Two Centuries

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Weather types are a summary of recurrent flow patterns over a specific region, in our case central Europe and the Alpine region. For this, we use the CAP7 (cluster analysis of principal components) WTC (Schwander et al, 2017). CAP7 is a time series of daily weather types representing the mean atmospheric circulation in the Alpine region and central Europe during the period 1763-2009.…”

Section: Weather Type Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It also covers a longer period than any existing reanalysis (from which weather types can also be computed). For more information on the method of reconstruction, see Schwander et al (2017). The daily weather types CAP7 are complemented with a probability value of each day being correctly classified (see Schwander et al, 2017).…”

Section: Weather Type Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For more information on the method of reconstruction, see Schwander et al (2017). The daily weather types CAP7 are complemented with a probability value of each day being correctly classified (see Schwander et al, 2017). Since CAP7 is a reconstruction and cannot be compared to any other WTC back to 1763, this probability value provides an indication on the reliability of the classification for each day.…”

Section: Weather Type Classificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a large panel of weather type classifications (WTCs) available for Europe based on various methods and covering different periods (Huth et al, 2008a;Philipp et al, 2010Philipp et al, , 2014. Here we use a unique data set of daily weather types covering the period 1763-2009 (Schwander et al, 2017). It allows us for the first time to investigate the impact of the 11-year solar cycle on European climate with an analysis of weather statistics over almost 250 years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Influence of solar variability on the occurrence of central European weather types from 1763 to 2009

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The impact of solar variability on weather and climate in central Europe is still not well understood. In this paper we use a new time series of daily weather types to analyse the influence of the 11-year solar cycle on the tropospheric weather of central Europe. We employ a novel, daily weather type classification over the period 1763-2009 and investigate the occurrence frequency of weather types under low, moderate, and high solar activity level. Results show a tendency towards fewer days with westerly and west-southwesterly flow over central Europe under low solar activity. In parallel, the occurrence of northerly and easterly types increases. For the 1958-2009 period, a more detailed view can be gained from reanalysis data. Mean sea level pressure composites under low solar activity also show a reduced zonal flow, with an increase of the mean blocking frequency between Iceland and Scandinavia. Weather types and reanalysis data show that the 11-year solar cycle influences the late winter atmospheric circulation over central Europe with colder (warmer) conditions under low (high) solar activity.

show abstract

Space‐Time Patterns of Meteorological Drought Events in the European Greater Alpine Region Over the Past 210 Years

Haslinger

Blöschl²

2017

Water Resources Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Droughts may have tremendous impacts on humans. However, the space‐time characteristics of droughts are not very well understood, as case studies usually focus on individual drought events. Here we investigate the spatiotemporal drought characteristics of a large sample of events over the past 210 years in the Greater Alpine Region of Central Europe. We use monthly precipitation data, and flag, for each grid point, time steps with precipitation below a 20% percentile. We then propose a new method that detects drought events by connecting the flagged elements to space‐time drought regions. In contrast to the traditional drought indices that are based on a fixed, prescribed time window, this method is able to identify droughts of different durations in an objective way. The data show multidecadal variations of drought frequency, duration, intensity, and severity, but no consistent trends over the 210 year period. The top 5% of events in terms of their severity show a shift in seasonality from winter/spring events in the late nineteenth century toward autumn events during the last decades of the twentieth century. The most severe events center either in the Northwest or in the Southeast of the region analyzed. We found no significant correlations of drought frequency, duration, intensity, and severity with the temperature increases in the past three decades. Dry springs significantly enhance temperatures during summer droughts, suggesting a soil moisture‐temperature feedback.

show abstract

Reconstruction of Central European daily weather types back to 1763

Cited by 40 publications

References 53 publications

Disentangling Drivers of Meteorological Droughts in the European Greater Alpine Region During the Last Two Centuries

Disentangling Drivers of Meteorological Droughts in the European Greater Alpine Region During the Last Two Centuries

Influence of solar variability on the occurrence of central European weather types from 1763 to 2009

Space‐Time Patterns of Meteorological Drought Events in the European Greater Alpine Region Over the Past 210 Years

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About