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www.nat-hazards-earth-syst-sci.net/11/2199/2011/
doi:10.5194/nhess-11-2199-2011
© Author(s) 2011. This work is distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Trends in Mediterranean gridded temperature extremes and large-scale circulation influences
1Climatic Research Unit, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
2Centre for Climate Change, Geography Department, University Rovira i Virgili, Tortosa, Spain
Abstract. Two recently-available daily gridded datasets are used to investigate trends in Mediterranean temperature extremes since the mid-20th century. The underlying trends are found to be generally consistent with global trends of temperature and their extremes: cold extremes decrease and warm/hot extremes increase. This consistency is better manifested in the western part of the Mediterranean where changes are most pronounced since the mid-1970s. In the eastern part, a cooling is observed, with a near reversal in the last two decades. This inter-basin discrepancy is clearer in winter, while in summer changes are more uniform and the west-east difference is restricted to the rate of increase of warm/hot extremes, which is higher in central and eastern parts of the Mediterranean over recent decades. Linear regression and correlation analysis reveals some influence of major large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns on the occurrence of these extremes – both in terms of trend and interannual variability. These relationships are not, however, able to account for the most striking features of the observations – in particular the intensification of the increasing trend in warm/hot extremes, which is most evident over the last 15–20 yr in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean.
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Citation: Efthymiadis, D., Goodess, C. M., and Jones, P. D.: Trends in Mediterranean gridded temperature extremes and large-scale circulation influences, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 11, 2199-2214, doi:10.5194/nhess-11-2199-2011, 2011. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
