Temperature extremes in Europe: overview of their driving atmospheric patterns

Abstract

As temperature extremes have a deep impact on environment, hydrology, agriculture, society and economy, the analysis of the mechanisms underlying their occurrence, including their relationships with the large-scale atmospheric circulation, is particularly pertinent and is discussed here for Europe and in the period 1961–2010 (50 yr). For this aim, a canonical correlation analysis, coupled with a principal component analysis (BPCCA), is applied between the monthly mean sea level pressure fields, defined within a large Euro-Atlantic sector, and the monthly occurrences of two temperature extreme indices (TN10p – cold nights and TX90p – warm days) in Europe. Each co-variability mode represents a large-scale forcing on the occurrence of temperature extremes. North Atlantic Oscillation-like patterns and strong anomalies in the atmospheric flow westwards of the British Isles are leading couplings between large-scale atmospheric circulation and winter, spring and autumn occurrences of both cold nights and warm days in Europe. Although summer couplings depict lower coherence between warm and cold events, important atmospheric anomalies are key driving mechanisms. For a better characterization of the extremes, the main features of the statistical distributions of the absolute minima (TNN) and maxima (TXX) are also examined for each season. Furthermore, statistically significant downward (upward) trends are detected in the cold night (warm day) occurrences over the period 1961–2010 throughout Europe, particularly in summer, which is in clear agreement with the overall warming

Links between central Greenland stable isotopes, blocking and extreme climate variability over Europe at decadal to multidecadal time scales

“…Shabbar et al 2001), is accompanied by enhanced frequency of extreme cold events over western and central Europe (e.g. Andrade et al 2012). However, we show here that, during the instrumental period, central Greenland stable isotope ice core records and extreme climate indices over Europe are better correlated with indices of blocking activity in the North Atlantic region than with the NAO indices at decadal to multidecadal time scales.…”

Трендови Индекса Екстремних Температура У Босни И Херцеговини ‒ Примјер Мостара

“…A comprehensive assessment of observed changes in extreme events was given in the IPCC Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (IPCC, 2012). All of these globally observed осмотрени трендови индекса екстремних температура такође су запажени и у Европи (Klein Tank, A. M. G. & Können, G. P., 2003;Andrade, C. et al, 2012;Dankers, R. & Hiederer, R., 2008).…”

“…Истраживања у медитеранском и субмедитеранском дијелу југоисточне Европе, гдје се налази Босна и Херцеговина, утврдила су пораст топлих температурних индекса и смањење хладних, што указује на загријавање климатског система током друге половине 20. trends in extreme temperature indices have also been found in Europe (Klein Tank, A. M. G. & Können, G. P., 2003;Andrade, C. et al, 2012;Dankers, R. & Hiederer, R., 2008).…”

Detection of heat and cold waves in Montevergine time series (1884–2015)

“…Glowienka-Hense, 1990;Slonosky et al, 2001;Hatzaki et al, 2009;Brunetti and Kutiel, 2011), but also of extreme temperature values (e.g. Santos and Corte-Real, 2006;Andrade et al 2012).…”

“…In a recent study, Andrade et al (2012) have discovered a relevant connection between the winter variability of the cold nights and warm days in Europe and the dipolar pattern associated to the North Atlantic Oscillation. Moreover, this work has highlighted a relationship between the occurrence of summer warm days and the meridional pressure gradient over Europe: the presence of low-pressure systems over the northern Europe and, at the same time, of high-pressure systems over southern Europe is favourable to warm advection over the Mediterranean basins (Andrade et al, 2012).…”