Current and future climate variability associated with wintertime precipitation in alpine Australia

Abstract

The Australian Alps, located in the southeast corner of the continent, are home to important ecologies and industries, including water supply, hydroelectricity and ski resorts. Sharp topography and prevailing westerly winds generate a unique microclimate with cool temperatures and abundant precipitation and is crucial to much of greater southeastern Australia’s water supply. Here we study the western, high and eastern slopes separately, exploring the global climate drivers associated with wintertime precipitation variability. The results show that while total precipitation is significantly declining on the western and high slopes, the total rain is not significantly changing on the eastern side. These differing trends are thought be a result of the changing nature of the westerly storm track and the subtropical ridge. Interestingly, the west/high wintertime rainfall decline is seen primarily as a reduction in the intensity of events, as the number of rainfall days per season has remained relatively constant throughout the analysis. The synoptic patterns associated with extreme precipitation are identified and shown to be well correlated with the total seasonal precipitation, suggesting a great importance of the extreme weather signatures in modulating the longer term climate. This correlation is used to calculate a number of climate indices relying on dynamical indicators such as pressure and temperature gradients, helping simulate the rainfall variability within the area. By exploring contrasting Climate Model Intercomparison Project 3 models from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industry Research Organization’s Representative Climate Futures Framework, we estimate using indices of the circulation dynamics that the west/high wintertime rainfall trend will continue to decline whilst rainfall in the eastern region will remain relatively stable. This result adds new light into future precipitation trends for the area, given the intrinsic difficulty of climate models to correctly represent precipitation behavior over the region.