Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- The significance of weather and climate extremes to society: an introduction
- I Defining and modeling the nature of weather and climate extremes
- 1 Definition, diagnosis, and origin of extreme weather and climate events
- 2 Observed changes in the global distribution of daily temperature and precipitation extremes
- 3 The spatial distribution of severe convective storms and an analysis of their secular changes
- 4 Regional storm climate and related marine hazards in the Northeast Atlantic
- 5 Extensive summer hot and cold extremes under current and possible future climatic conditions: Europe and North America
- 6 Beyond mean climate change: what climate models tell us about future climate extremes
- 7 Tropical cyclones and climate change: revisiting recent studies at GFDL
- II Impacts of weather and climate extremes
- Index
- Plate section
- References
2 - Observed changes in the global distribution of daily temperature and precipitation extremes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword
- Preface
- The significance of weather and climate extremes to society: an introduction
- I Defining and modeling the nature of weather and climate extremes
- 1 Definition, diagnosis, and origin of extreme weather and climate events
- 2 Observed changes in the global distribution of daily temperature and precipitation extremes
- 3 The spatial distribution of severe convective storms and an analysis of their secular changes
- 4 Regional storm climate and related marine hazards in the Northeast Atlantic
- 5 Extensive summer hot and cold extremes under current and possible future climatic conditions: Europe and North America
- 6 Beyond mean climate change: what climate models tell us about future climate extremes
- 7 Tropical cyclones and climate change: revisiting recent studies at GFDL
- II Impacts of weather and climate extremes
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Condensed summary
Observed changes in climate extremes have been documented for both temperature and precipitation in many parts of the globe. These changes include decreases in frost days and a lengthening of the frost-free season, increases in the number of days with temperatures above percentile-based thresholds, and increases in heavy precipitation events. These changes are generally consistent with observed warming in mean annual temperatures, and with observed changes in annual precipitation.
Introduction
This chapter reviews the scientific literature on variability and change in observed climate extremes over the globe. Observed changes in extremes should be considered in light of observed changes in mean quantities, including observed changes in annual average temperature, and changes in maximum and minimum temperatures and the diurnal temperature range (DTR) (Easterling et al., 1997; Vose et al., 2005). The globally averaged annual temperature (Fig. 2.1) shows a linear increase of approximately 0.6 degrees per century since the late 1800s, but the rate of increase since the mid 1970s has itself increased to approximately 2 degrees per century. Seasonally, the strongest increases have occurred in the boreal winter (December–January–February, DJF) and spring (March–April–May, MAM). Figure 2.2 shows that, regionally, the southeastern United States and northern Atlantic continue to show a trend to cooling, but the southeastern US trend appears to be getting smaller with each additional year of data; the largest increases in temperature have occurred in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Climate Extremes and Society , pp. 24 - 34Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
References
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