Revisiting precipitation variability, trends and drivers in the Canary Islands
The Canary Islands are characterized by their low availability of water resources and different studies have suggested a decrease of precipitation in the second half of the 20th century. Here, we have used the most complete precipitation data set available in the islands to create a dense high quali...
Published in: | International Journal of Climatology |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Other Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
John Wiley & Sons
2017
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/185381 https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4937 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002911 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100007273 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003339 https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003329 |
Summary: | The Canary Islands are characterized by their low availability of water resources and different studies have suggested a decrease of precipitation in the second half of the 20th century. Here, we have used the most complete precipitation data set available in the islands to create a dense high quality and homogeneous database, which was used to determine the spatio‐temporal precipitation patterns in the archipelago and the influence of oceanic and atmospheric teleconnections. We have produced a robust regionalization of the Canary Islands precipitation, with three patterns that characterizing the south of the most montainous islands and El Hierro and La Gomera, the north of the most montainous islands and the easternmost arid islands (Lanzarote and Fuerteventura), respectively. All of them show high interannual variability, with no significant trends, except in a few cases. We highlight the strong influence of weather types and teleconections, modulated by the orography, with the highest influence recorded in the first pattern. It must be stressed that the oceanic teleconnections (in special with the tropical North Atlantic surface temperature) are more important than the North Atlantic Oscillation to explain interannual variability of precipitation. This work was supported by the research projects CGL2014‐52135‐C03‐01 and Red de variabilidad y cambio climático RECLIM (CGL2014‐517221‐REDT) financed by the Spanish Commission of Science and Technology and FEDER. A.S.B. received a JAE Intro 2015 fellowship supported by CSIC and a predoctoral fellowship CT45/15‐CT46/15 supported by the Complutense University of Madrid. Peer reviewed |
---|