Contributors to the Record High Temperatures Across Australia in Late Spring 2014

Abstract

Data. Monthly maximum temperatures from the Australian Water Availability Project (AWAP) gridded dataset (Jones et al. 2009) were analyzed on a 0.25° grid over Australian land points. Observed sea surface temperatures from Hurrell et al. (2008) for 1981 and Reynolds et al. (2002) from 1982 onwards were used for the ENSO index (based on Nino-3.4 SSTs: 5°N–5°S, 170°–120°W) and the Indian Ocean dipole mode index [IOD: western pole (10°S–10°N, 50°–70°E); eastern pole (10°S–0°, 90°–110°E); Saji et al. 1999]. The SAM was calculated as the first EOF of mean sea level pressure (MSLP) anomalies over 20°–75°S (e.g., Lim et al. 2011) from the ERA-Interim reanalysis (Dee et al. 2011). Soil moisture estimates are from Raupach et al. (2009) for the upper-layer (<0.2m). Global mean temperatures were from the U.K. Met Office HadCRUT4 (version 4.3.0.0; www. metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcrut4/).