Extreme anomalies of winter air temperature in mid-latitude Europe
The aim of this paper is to report extreme winter/early-spring air temperature (hereinafter temperature) anomalies in mid-latitude Europe, and to discuss the underlying forcing to these interannual fluctuations. Warm advection from the North Atlantic in late winter controls the surface-air temperatu...
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ftunivtorunir:oai:repozytorium.umk.pl:item/4352 2023-05-15T17:32:38+02:00 Extreme anomalies of winter air temperature in mid-latitude Europe Otterman, J. Ardizzone, J. Atlas, R. Bungato, D. Cierniewski, J. Jusem, J.C. Przybylak, Rajmund Schubert, S. Starr, D. Walczewski, J. Woś, A. 2001 http://repozytorium.umk.pl/handle/item/4352 eng eng Geographia Polonica vol. 74, no. 2, 2001, pp. 57-67 0016-7282 http://repozytorium.umk.pl/handle/item/4352 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess anomalies of air temperature in Europe maritime-air advection climatic fluctuations info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2001 ftunivtorunir 2022-02-22T17:32:46Z The aim of this paper is to report extreme winter/early-spring air temperature (hereinafter temperature) anomalies in mid-latitude Europe, and to discuss the underlying forcing to these interannual fluctuations. Warm advection from the North Atlantic in late winter controls the surface-air temperature, as indicated by the substantial correlation between the speed of the surface southwesterlies over the eastern North Atlantic (quantified by a specific Index Ina) and the 2-meter level air temperatures (hereinafter Ts) over Europe, 45-60°N, in winter. In mid-March and subsequently, the correlation drops drastically (quite often it is negative). This change in the relationship between Ts and Ina marks a transition in the control of the surface-air temperature: absorption of insolation replaces the warm advection as the dominant control. This forcing by maritime-air advection in winter was demonstrated in a previous publication, and is re-examined here in conjunction with extreme fluctuations of temperatures in Europe. We analyze here the interannual variability at its extreme by comparing the warm-winter/early-spring of 1989/90 with the opposite scenario in 1995/96. For these two December-to-March periods the differences in the monthly mean air temperature in Warsaw and Toruń, Poland, range above 10°C. Short-term (shorter than a month) fluctuations of air temperature are likewise very strong. We conduct pentad-by-pentad analysis of the surface-maximum air temperature (hereinafter Tmax), in a selected location, examining the dependence on Ina. The increased cloudiness and larger amounts of total precipitable water, corollary effects to the warm low-level advection in the 1989/90 winter, enhance the positive air temperature anomalies. The analysis of the ocean-surface winds is based on the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) dataset; ascent rates, and over land wind data are from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF); maps of 2-m air temperature, cloud cover and precipitable water are from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Reanalysis. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Nicolaus Copernicus University (UMK) Torun: RUM@K |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Nicolaus Copernicus University (UMK) Torun: RUM@K |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtorunir |
language |
English |
topic |
anomalies of air temperature in Europe maritime-air advection climatic fluctuations |
spellingShingle |
anomalies of air temperature in Europe maritime-air advection climatic fluctuations Otterman, J. Ardizzone, J. Atlas, R. Bungato, D. Cierniewski, J. Jusem, J.C. Przybylak, Rajmund Schubert, S. Starr, D. Walczewski, J. Woś, A. Extreme anomalies of winter air temperature in mid-latitude Europe |
topic_facet |
anomalies of air temperature in Europe maritime-air advection climatic fluctuations |
description |
The aim of this paper is to report extreme winter/early-spring air temperature (hereinafter temperature) anomalies in mid-latitude Europe, and to discuss the underlying forcing to these interannual fluctuations. Warm advection from the North Atlantic in late winter controls the surface-air temperature, as indicated by the substantial correlation between the speed of the surface southwesterlies over the eastern North Atlantic (quantified by a specific Index Ina) and the 2-meter level air temperatures (hereinafter Ts) over Europe, 45-60°N, in winter. In mid-March and subsequently, the correlation drops drastically (quite often it is negative). This change in the relationship between Ts and Ina marks a transition in the control of the surface-air temperature: absorption of insolation replaces the warm advection as the dominant control. This forcing by maritime-air advection in winter was demonstrated in a previous publication, and is re-examined here in conjunction with extreme fluctuations of temperatures in Europe. We analyze here the interannual variability at its extreme by comparing the warm-winter/early-spring of 1989/90 with the opposite scenario in 1995/96. For these two December-to-March periods the differences in the monthly mean air temperature in Warsaw and Toruń, Poland, range above 10°C. Short-term (shorter than a month) fluctuations of air temperature are likewise very strong. We conduct pentad-by-pentad analysis of the surface-maximum air temperature (hereinafter Tmax), in a selected location, examining the dependence on Ina. The increased cloudiness and larger amounts of total precipitable water, corollary effects to the warm low-level advection in the 1989/90 winter, enhance the positive air temperature anomalies. The analysis of the ocean-surface winds is based on the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) dataset; ascent rates, and over land wind data are from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF); maps of 2-m air temperature, cloud cover and precipitable water are from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Reanalysis. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Otterman, J. Ardizzone, J. Atlas, R. Bungato, D. Cierniewski, J. Jusem, J.C. Przybylak, Rajmund Schubert, S. Starr, D. Walczewski, J. Woś, A. |
author_facet |
Otterman, J. Ardizzone, J. Atlas, R. Bungato, D. Cierniewski, J. Jusem, J.C. Przybylak, Rajmund Schubert, S. Starr, D. Walczewski, J. Woś, A. |
author_sort |
Otterman, J. |
title |
Extreme anomalies of winter air temperature in mid-latitude Europe |
title_short |
Extreme anomalies of winter air temperature in mid-latitude Europe |
title_full |
Extreme anomalies of winter air temperature in mid-latitude Europe |
title_fullStr |
Extreme anomalies of winter air temperature in mid-latitude Europe |
title_full_unstemmed |
Extreme anomalies of winter air temperature in mid-latitude Europe |
title_sort |
extreme anomalies of winter air temperature in mid-latitude europe |
publishDate |
2001 |
url |
http://repozytorium.umk.pl/handle/item/4352 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
Geographia Polonica vol. 74, no. 2, 2001, pp. 57-67 0016-7282 http://repozytorium.umk.pl/handle/item/4352 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
_version_ |
1766130843306164224 |