Influence of circulation types on temperature extremes in Europe

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the influence of atmospheric circulation on the recently observed changes in the number of warm days and cold days in Europe. The temperature series for stations in the European Climate Assessment and Data set project and the Grosswetterlagen (GWL) were used here. The temperature series were first adjusted for global warming before determining the indices for cold and warm extremes. The 29 GWLs were grouped in ten circulation types. Then, the number of days a certain circulation type occurred was determined for each winter (December, January and February) and summer (June, July and August). The relation between the circulation type frequencies and the temperature indices was modelled with a multi-regression fit over the period 1947–1974 and tested for the period 1974–2000. The difference between the observed indices and the calculated indices in the second period (using the fit coefficients for the first period) shows a warming effect for both winter and summer and for at least the warm day index, which is unaccounted for by the global warming trend. A simple snow model shows that variations in the European snow cover extent are likely influencing the cold and warm day indices in winter: there is a correlation between the decreasing trend of the snow cover extent in Europe and the increasing (decreasing) trend of the number of warm (cold) days for stations throughout Europe.