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With projected climate change, it is increasingly important to understand the current role of weather in everyday life and how it may change in the future. This paper evaluates two qualitative research approaches for their ability to generate insight into weather-related experiences and everyday practices. As these mundane day-to-day weather interactions often escape memory over time, the paper calls into question the ability of conventional methodological approaches that rely on recall to accurately excavate these events. The research examined serial one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with an adapted short-term focus, and daily diary-photographs. Each approach was applied to one of two Australian cities with sharply contrasting climates - Melbourne and Darwin. Both approaches were able to generate insight into weather-related experiences and practices. However, both presented problems. In interviews, these problems related to retrospective accounts beyond 'yesterday', where physical experience recollections became limited. For diary-photographs, inspiring participants to continually complete and submit contributions proved problematic. I argue that interviews are better for documenting routine practice and generalised experiences, while diary-photographs are better at showing fine-grained detail of physical experiences. Where both aspects are sought, as in this study, a combination is possible. However, using dual methods increases the risk of participant fatigue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbursts are meteorological phenomena in the lower troposphere which can produce damaging surface winds and pose a severe risk to aircraft flying close to the ground. As these events usually span less than 4 km and 15 min, the spatiotemporal resolution is a challenge for numerical simulations. Although research of microburst using operative mesoscale models is scarce, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model has been used in the diagnosis of this phenomenon. In this paper, such model is used to simulate several microburst conducive days using two different boundary conditions. The energy spectra of the simulations are computed to evaluate the effective resolution of the model. The results are in line with previous studies and produce no notable differences among the boundary conditions. Nonetheless, the energy spectra show an overenergetic troposphere at microscale resolutions, rendering the effective resolution inadequate for microburst forecasting using the simulated physics variables. Thus, mesoscale indices are analyzed as a prognostic tool. The wind index, the wet microburst severity index and the microburst windspeed potential index do not show high forecasting performances, even though improving the results of climatology. Also, notable differences among the boundary conditions can be seen. The most consistent results are achieved by the wet microburst severity index. Key Points: The WRF model shows an unrealistic energy spectrum when microscale spatial resolutions are usedThe effective resolution of the simulations casts doubts over the ability to forecast microburstsWINDEX, WMSI, and MWPI microburst indices show better forecasting performance than climatology, despite being suboptimal in general terms [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency and magnitude of extreme meteorological or hydrological events such as floods and droughts in China have been influenced by global climate change. The water problem due to increasing frequency and magnitude of extreme events in the humid areas has gained great attention in recent years. However, the main challenge in the evaluation of climate change impact on extreme events is that large uncertainty could exist. Therefore, this paper first aims to model possible impacts of climate change on regional extreme precipitation (indicated by 24-h design rainfall depth) at seven rainfall gauge stations in the Qiantang River Basin, East China. The Long Ashton Research Station-Weather Generator is adopted to downscale the global projections obtained from general circulation models (GCMs) to regional climate data at site scale. The weather generator is also checked for its performance through three approaches, namely Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, comparison of L-moment statistics and 24-h design rainfall depths. Future 24-h design rainfall depths at seven stations are estimated using Pearson Type III distribution and L-moment approach. Second, uncertainty caused by three GCMs under various greenhouse gas emission scenarios for the future periods 2020s (2011-2030), 2055s (2046-2065) and 2090s (2080-2099) is investigated. The final results show that 24-h design rainfall depth increases in most stations under the three GCMs and emission scenarios. However, there are large uncertainties involved in the estimations of 24-h design rainfall depths at seven stations because of GCM, emission scenario and other uncertainty sources. At Hangzhou Station, a relative change of −16% to 113% can be observed in 100y design rainfall depths. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding of how best to support those most vulnerable to climate stress is imperative given expected changes in climate variability. This paper investigates local adaptation strategies to climate variability, focusing on agricultural decision-making in a communal irrigation scheme in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa. Research done through interviews, surveys and participatory methods demonstrates that adaptation strategies within a community are socially differentiated and present differing objectives and priorities. These results highlight the need for intervention and policy that support a heterogeneous response to a wide range of stresses. Evidence for climate change is clear and the need for adaptation is urgent. However, adaptation measures have to be sensitively integrated with ongoing development pathways to ensure they are sustainable and relevant to local priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cut-off low pressure systems (COLs) are defined as closed lows in the upper troposphere that have become completely detached from the main westerly current. These slow-moving systems often affect the weather conditions at the earth's surface and also work as a mechanism of mass transfer between the stratosphere and the troposphere, playing a significant role in the net flow of tropospheric ozone. In the first part of this work we provide a comprehensive summary of results obtained in previous studies of COLs. Following this, we present three long-term climatologies of COLs. The first two climatologies are based on the conceptual model of a COL, using European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analyses (1958–2002) and National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research (1948–2006) reanalysis data sets. The third climatology uses a different method of detection, which is based on using potential vorticity as the physical parameter of diagnosis. This approach was applied only to the ECMWF reanalysis data. The final part of the paper is devoted to comparing results obtained by these different climatologies in terms of areas of preferential occurrence, life span, and seasonal cycle. Despite some key differences, the three climatologies agree in terms of the main areas of COL occurrence, namely (1) southwestern Europe, (2) the eastern north Pacific coast, and (3) the north China–Siberian region. However, it is also shown that the detection of these areas of main COL occurrence, as obtained using the potential vorticity approach, depends on the level of isentropic analysis used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This month’s issue focuses on the meteorological effects of solar eclipses using data collected in the UK on 20 March 2015 and the USA on 21 August 2017. We begin with Edward Hanna’s examination of data from stations run by amateur enthusiasts, most of them in the Climatological Observers’ Link network. ‘Meteorological effects of the 20 March 2015 solar eclipse over the United Kingdom’ on p. 71 builds on the observations made at Met Office stations, published in Clark ( ) and Hanna et al. ( ). The observations show a high degree of consistency and the reduction in solar radiation had a strong signal in all parts of the UK, even where there were cloudy skies in most southern, as well as many northern and eastern areas. It also adds to the effects reported in this journal, following the eclipse of 11 August 1999 (Hanna, ). Bob Bourton’s short contribution ‘The thermal effects noticed at Heathrow Airport during the partial solar eclipse of 20 March 2015 ‘on p. 81 looks at the effects of the 2015 eclipse at Heathrow Airport. The range of instruments available across the airport and in roads leading to it gives further insight into the temperature and radiation changes during the obscuration of 85% of the sun’s disk in the west of London. On p. 90, we move to the observations made in the USA under the swathe of total or near‐total eclipse on 21 August 2017 in ‘Meteorological impacts of the total solar eclipse of 21 August 2017’, as reported by Stephen Burt. The data from sites run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, ) are supplemented by observations made by Stephen Burt near Jackson, Wyoming. Because the path of this eclipse crossed much of the USA and could be observed at least partially in all parts of the country, this was probably the best observed eclipse in history. Under clear skies, falls of about 5 degC were seen, accompanied by a fall in wind speed, now known from observations on both sides of the Atlantic to be a significant effect of this short‐duration phenomenon. We also include a seasonally‐appropriate look at the effects of year‐to‐year weather on plants and animals on p. 86. Ian Strangeways’ paper ‘Phenology: plants and animals as meteorological sensors’, gives us an overview of this subject, which used to be one of the activities of the Royal Meteorological Society. He includes the history of its development in the UK, as well as its value in weather science and our knowledge of the effects of changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first part of this paper existing evidence (mostly from earth and atmospheric sciences) on global climatic changes and their dependence (and effect) upon human action is briefly reviewed. Reference is made to existing major international programmes of research focusing on these climatic changes. The main part of the paper concentrates on the study of global change within the framework of the social sciences. Five psychological characteristics of global environmental change are explained which would account for the human inability to respond adequately without the supportive means of information presentation and processing. Future research on psychological dimensions of global change should explore these in greater detail and study modes of social communication that will become instrumental in implementing such support systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ships' logbooks have been preserved in archives of different European countries. This paper reviews how their records provide reliable information relevant to meteorology and climatology, extending the observational record back to at least the early 18th century. This allows describing weather during historical events, improving the knowledge on hurricanes or unveiling multidecadal variability previously unsuspected, such as the steady enhancement of the Australian monsoon, the high variability of the atmospheric circulation over the Euro‐Atlantic region during the Late Maunder Minimum or the relationship between the Western North Pacific Summer Monsoon and the El Niño—Southern Oscillation. Observations from ships can feed long‐term reanalysis projects and contribute to reduce their uncertainties over the oceans. The extended record of observations also aids the search of analogues before the human fingerprint, thus improving the detection and attribution of climate change. The integration with paleoclimate proxies is a complex task that requires merging heterogeneous records with a wide range of time resolutions, spatial density, and responses to the climate system. However, recent international efforts open the field to new opportunities. Summing up, logbooks are a consistent, but underexploited, source of relevant climatic data that will widen our knowledge of the past climate. This in turn provides a way to better understand present climatic variations and predict future changes. This article is categorized under: Paleoclimates and Current Trends > Modern Climate Change Ships' logbooks help to understand climate variability of the last 300 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents work from a geomorphological investigation carried out in the Aradena Gorge, southwestern Crete, Greece. The gorge is typical of many steepland fluvial systems in the Mediterranean, with steep relief, coarse-gravel sediments and high rates of sedimentation generated during intense winter storm events. Hillslope deposits and coarse-gravel flood units within a 5 km section of the gorge have been mapped, dated (using lichenometry and dendrochronology), and their sedimentological characteristics recorded to establish a c. 200-year record of flood frequency/magnitude and hillslope/channel sediment supply variability. This record has been compared with instrumented and previously published records of climate change from Crete and the Mediterranean region and used to establish the major controls on flooding and sediment dynamics within the Aradena Gorge. Rates of colluviation and sediment delivery to the channel appear to have been greater than the present sometime before c. AD 1800 and may be related to cooler climates with a more seasonal precipitation regime during the Little Ice Age (c. AD 1450 to 1850). In gorge sections where the present rate of sediment supply from hillslope colluvium is very low, the channel has incised into older alluvial and colluvial deposits. Conversely, in the few sections where sediment supply is currently very high, the channel is aggrading with a braided pattern. Major rock-fall deposits at certain locations in the gorge have restricted any major downstream sediment transfer. Twelve periods of increased flooding during the last 150 years have been identified and these correlate quite well with negative or declining phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Analysis of daily precipitation data from Crete suggests negative phases of the winter NAO are characterized by an increase in the number of long-duration, high-intensity storms. These storms, particularly those with five-day and greater duration, appear to be significant in triggering major floods in the Aradena Gorge. During the last 40 years the NAO index has been increasing and become locked into a positive phase. As a consequence of this, major flooding appears to have declined during the same period. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in climatic change has never been greater and it is inevitable that the search for periodicities in the climatic record should be a popular means of attempting to unravel at least some of the complexities of the atmospheric system. This paper reviews aspects of the methodologies of spectral analysis and takes the example of the Barcelona precipitation series (1850–1991) to illustrate how both spectral analysis and other statistical analyses can provide information on climatic evolution as expressed through the medium of this one variable. Copyright © 1999 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifying the influence of sea spray on air‐sea fluxes under high‐wind conditions is challenging due to a variety of factors. Among existing models, the so‐called bulk air‐sea flux model is commonly used in meteorological applications due to its simplicity, which often involves strong but untested assumptions on spray‐mediated heat fluxes and feedback effects. For example, a common assumption is to treat each droplet size as an independent contribution; that is, it does not interact with other sizes. Thus, the interactions between different size classes of spray are often neglected. In this study, we focus on the polydispersity of the spray size distribution and investigate the appropriateness of assuming an independent contribution from different spray size classes. We implement direct numerical simulations (DNS) with Lagrangian tracking of spray droplets. Based on DNS results, the bulk spray model fails to capture the interactions between different sizes that are observed directly from the droplet and feedback statistics in DNS. Thus, assuming independent contributions from spray droplets results in significant overestimates on the total heat fluxes. We further test different representative sizes of a spray size distribution. We find that the volume‐weighted representative size is capable of predicting the droplet‐modified temperature and humidity fields and generally captures the vertical profiles of spray‐mediated and interfacial heat fluxes. The results indicate that the computation of spray‐mediated fluxes can be simplified in large‐scale parameterizations. Key Points: Directly adding all contributions from spray droplets in bulk models may introduce overestimates on spray‐mediated heat fluxesWe improved the overestimation issue in bulk model for the total heat flux by considering the effects of spray time scalesUsing the volume‐weighted mean size as a representative size could simplify the quantifying of air‐sea fluxes in an Eulerian framework [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variable‐resolution global climate models (VRGCMs) are a dynamical downscaling method that can reach spatiotemporal scales needed for regional climate assessments. Over the years, several users of VRGCMs have assumed where the location and extent of the refinement domain should be based on knowledge of the prevailing storm tracks and resolution dependence of important regional climate processes (e.g., atmospheric rivers [ARs] and orographic uplift), but the effect of high‐resolution domain size and extent on the simulation of downstream hydroclimatic phenomena has not been systematically evaluated. Here, we use variable resolution in the Community Earth System Model (VR‐CESM) to perform such a test. To do this, three VR‐CESM grids were generated that span the entire, two thirds, and one third of the North Pacific and evaluated for a 30‐year climatology using Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project protocols. Simulations are compared with reanalysis products offshore (fifth‐generation of the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts atmospheric reanalysis [ERA5]) and onshore (Livneh, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2015.42, and Parameter‐elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model [PRISM]) of the western United States. The westward expansion of refinement domain influenced integrated vapor transport (IVT), which was generally high biased but minimally impacted AR characteristics. Due to slight differences in landfalling AR counts in the western United States, California winter precipitation generally improved with westward expansion of the refinement domain. Western U.S. mountain snowpack and surface temperatures were insensitive to refinement domain size and were more influenced by changes in topographic resolution and/or land surface model version. Given minimal dependence of simulated western U.S. hydroclimate on refinement domain size over the North Pacific, we advise future VR‐CESM studies to focus grid resolution on better resolving land surface heterogeneity. Key Points: Three variable‐resolution Community Earth System Model simulations are assessed for sensitivities to refinement domain sizeMore extensive refinement of the western Pacific reduces the integrated water vapor transport bias to the western United StatesTopographic resolution and land surface model have greater influences on simulated hydroclimatology than refinement domain extent [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nonlinear method has been developed to estimate climate feedbacks based on the Neural Network (NN) taking advantage of its self‐learning skills. The NN model developed here is trained using a reanalysis data set and predicts radiation flux globally from atmospheric and surface variables. The radiative feedbacks of temperature, water vapor, surface albedo, and cloud in the interannual climate variations estimated from the NN method are in agreement with those from a broadly used kernel method. However, the NN method demonstrates significant advantages: (1) it withdraws the linearity assumption of the kernel method and accounts for the nonlinear effects of the feedbacks. In the case of large climate perturbations, such as that in the Arctic caused by sea ice melt, the NN method achieves better radiation closure. (2) The method can directly calculate the radiative feedback of cloud and its components. We find that the high, middle, and low cloud feedback components analyzed from the NN method are linearly additive in the interannual climate variations, although there is a considerable nonlinear effect arising from the interactions between cloud and noncloud variables. Key Points: A nonlinear Neural Network (NN) method has been developed to estimate climate feedbacksThe NN method accounts for the nonlinear effects of the feedbacks and achieves good radiation closureThe NN method can directly calculate the radiative feedback of cloud and its components [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Accurate forecasts of fog and visibility are important for many applications; while prolonged fog can adversely affect many crops, even a short duration of dense fog can lead to disruption of air and highway traffic. The genesis and dynamics of fog are a result of many processes; accurate forecasting of fog thus continues to be a challenge. A forecast model of the occurrence of fog, measured in terms of visibility, is presented. The model is formulated as an analogue model; thus the merit of the model is primarily based on its validation against observation. Two forecasts using two sets of meteorological fields are considered: one as the benchmark forecasts with visibility calculated from observed meteorological fields and the other based on meteorological forecasts from an atmospheric mesoscale model ( Weather Research and Forecasting). While the benchmark (perfect) forecasts from observed meteorological fields provide the potential skill of the model, the mesoscale forecasts provide an assessment of realizable skill in an operational setting. The validation was carried out against hourly visibility data recorded at Indira Gandhi International Airport over Delhi during the winter months ( December and January) for the period 2009-2012. Error statistics show that the analogue fog model can capture a significant part of the observed variability of fog. The forecasts have more success in forecasting intense (visibility < 500 m) and persistent (duration > 4 h) fog events. The model provides a useful forecasting tool, as shown by measures such as average error, number of false warnings and the number of misses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National security agencies and other interested parties now often regard conflict as the inevitable consequence of climate change. This inclination to reduce war to the vicissitudes of climate is not new however. Here, I examine some of the earlier ways in which violence was attributed to climatic conditions, particularly in the United States, and trace links between these older advocates of climatic determinism and the recent writings of those insisting that climate change will usher in a grim world of chronic warfare. It ends by drawing attention to the writings of some critics who are troubled by the ease with which climatic reductionism is capturing the public imagination. WIREs Clim Change 2015, 6:437-444. doi: 10.1002/wcc.352 For further resources related to this article, please visit the . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT An international programme dedicated to the study of the Third Pole Environment ( TPE) is now developing. The TPE region is centred on the Tibetan Plateau and concerns the interests of the surrounding countries and regions. To improve input for hydrological research, we collected precipitation data on 241 meteorological stations across the TPE region; these data were obtained from various countries, thus including various types of gauges. Employing the procedure recommended by the World Meteorological Organization ( WMO), a full version of bias adjustment was applied to the data, including adjustments for wind-induced error, wetting loss, evaporation loss and trace amount for each station. The results reveal that the average annual precipitation has increased considerably from a minimum of 4 mm to a maximum of 409 mm with an overall mean of 27% from the adjustment, the largest bias being found in the Chinese standard precipitation gauge ( CSPG) which was used in the central TPE region. In addition, the bias shows variable spatial and temporal patterns in different climate zones throughout this area. It is expected that this study and its results will be beneficial for hydrological and climatic studies over the TPE region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multivariate, multisite daily weather generator is presented for use in decision-centric vulnerability assessments under climate change. The tool is envisioned to be useful for a wide range of socioeconomic and biophysical systems sensitive to different aspects of climate variability and change. The proposed stochastic model has several components, including (1) a wavelet decomposition coupled to an autoregressive model to account for structured, low-frequency climate oscillations, (2) a Markov chain and k-nearest-neighbor (KNN) resampling scheme to simulate spatially distributed, multivariate weather variables over a region, and (3) a quantile mapping procedure to enforce long-term distributional shifts in weather variables that result from prescribed climate changes. The Markov chain is used to better represent wet and dry spell statistics, while the KNN bootstrap resampler preserves the covariance structure between the weather variables and across space. The wavelet-based autoregressive model is applied to annual climate over the region and used to modulate the Markov chain and KNN resampling, embedding appropriate low-frequency structure within the daily weather generation process. Parameters can be altered in any of the components of the proposed model to enable the generation of realistic time series of climate variables that exhibit changes to both lower-order and higher-order statistics at long-term (interannual), mid-term (seasonal), and short-term (daily) timescales. The tool can be coupled with impact models in a bottom-up risk assessment to efficiently and exhaustively explore the potential climate changes under which a system is most vulnerable. An application of the weather generator is presented for the Connecticut River basin to demonstrate the tool's ability to generate a wide range of possible climate sequences over an extensive spatial domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the benefits of meteorology and climatology in the economical and social aspects of Switzerland. It states a study by Ecoplan in 2007 that shows an estimated average economic damage of 1000 million Swiss Francs per year for the period covering 2005-2100 is expected due to climate change. it also states that data on weather and climate can be utilized as planning and control tools to reduce risks associated with climate change.

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Conservation Biology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Northern Hemisphere annular mode, also known as the Arctic Oscillation/North Atlantic Oscillation (AO/NAO) is a dominant atmospheric mode in the Northern Hemisphere winter that influences climate fluctuations from the eastern seaboard of the United States to Siberia and from the Arctic to the subtropical Atlantic. After almost a century of scientific investigation, the fundamental mechanisms determining the evolution of the AO/NAO are not yet completely understood. The ocean is favored as the most likely forcing of atmospheric variability, given the time scales of oceanic circulation and its large heat capacity. Our analyses of snow cover, soil temperatures, zonal winds, and geopotential heights identify the effect of land–atmosphere interaction over Eurasia on Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation, explaining the predictive signal that links fluctuations of April–October snow cover with the following winter AO/NAO phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a rain-gauge network evaluation and augmentation using geostatistical approach. The section describes the topographic and rainfall characteristics of the study area and the data selected for use in the study. It also discussed the spatial variation characteristics of hourly and annual rainfalls using variogram analysis. The study recommends a threshold value for the percentage of area with acceptable accuracy to help determine the number of non-base gauges which need to be relocated.

Systematic conservation planning provides a structured, target-driven approach to ensuring the long-term maintenance of biodiversity. However, reviews of how well the steps of such a planning process are applied in different regions are scant; some steps may be implemented although there is no formal systematic conservation planning process taking place. Here we conduct such a review for Europe. Taking in turn the six recognized steps of systematic conservation planning, for this region: (i) The availability of data on biodiversity remains a significant constraint on conservation planning because, although species occurrences have often been better mapped in Europe than elsewhere, there is a continuing mismatch between the spatial resolution at which data coverage is adequate and that of habitat fragmentation. (ii) Although there are important legal frameworks for conservation planning, explicit quantitative goals for the representation and persistence of biodiversity are largely lacking. (iii) Assessment of the effectiveness of existing protected area systems is patchy and rather ill developed, with a substantial gulf between the work being conducted in more academic and policy-oriented arenas. (iv) Nonetheless, particularly through the Natura 2000 process, there has been an extraordinary program to select additional protected areas. (v) Although it has taken longer than originally envisaged, this program is resulting in a substantial expansion of the protected area system. (vi) There are significant concerns over the extent to which existing protected area systems can maintain their biodiversity values, particularly given the small size of many of these areas and likely impacts of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes a detailed diagnostic analysis of a suite of observed datasets which was carried out with a view to understand the importance of cloud-radiative effects on the evolution of prolonged monsoon breaks over the Indian region. It focuses on the role of clouds in affecting the sub-seasonal/intra-seasonal variability of sea surface temperature and atmospheric convection in the equatorial and south-eastern tropical Indian Ocean during monsoon-break transitions. It suggests that the sea surface temperature warming during the pre-break phase plays a key role in maintaining high sea surface temperature and allows sustained convection to occur over the south-eastern tropical Indian Ocean during prolonged monsoon breaks.

The article analyzes the relationships between sea surge and frequency of each weather regime at inter-annual to multi-decadal time scales. More than 75 percent of sea surges occur during both of the weather regimes associated with a negative North Atlantic Oscillation phase. The relationships between monthly/seasonal frequency of weather regime and 75th percentile of sea surge at Grau-de-la-Dent tend to strengthen during the 20th century. The correlation between seasonal frequencies of GA and 75th percentile of sea surge increases from 0.07 in 1905-1940 to 0.83 in 1974-2002.

The article investigates the surface temperature changes over different land surface vegetation classes by the dividing the globe into seven regions using a global land cover classification data set. The authors also examine the detection and attribution of surface temperature trends over various vegetation classes for the last 50 years using outputs from three coupled climate models. Findings of the study indicate significant warming in all regions from the year 1900 and antropogenic warming trend in six out of seven regions.

Production and use of energy is the main source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in developed countries. In the Baltic States, climate change mitigation policies and measures implemented have been driven mainly by efforts to reach EU accession standards, and all EU environmental directives relating to the energy sector have now been implemented. This has had a significant impact on the reduction of GHG emissions. This article presents a comparative review of the general framework for climate change mitigation in the energy sector of the Baltic States. It compares and analyses measures already implemented in the three countries — legal, fiscal and voluntary — and market based tools to reduce GHG emissions, and evaluates the impact of EU environmental and energy directives on the reduction of GHG emissions. Some descriptive sections of the article come from the Nordic Council of Ministers study “Challenges of Kyoto commitments for the Baltic States’ energy sectors”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basic features of current spatial and seasonal climate variations in Central and High Asia are presented. Large-scale circulation modes were inferred from NCAR/CDAS General Circulation Model (GCM) data and interpreted with particular emphasis on the Asian Monsoon circulation. Using spatial high-resolution estimates of radiation, temperature and precipitation covering Central and High Asia in a regular grid network with a grid-cell spacing of 1&ThickSpace;km 2 , topoclimatic variations are investigated and discussed with respect to their major barometric and topographic controls. In general, weather patterns of Central and High Asia are determined by tropical monsoon as well as extratropical circulation modes. Associated synoptic conditions and processes, in particular the alternation of tropical and polar air masses, lead to distinct large-scale variations valid for all climatic parameters in all seasons. The regional analysis and discussion of climatic gradients and environmental lapse rates stress the significant role of Asia's marked orography and its influence on advective processes, flow currents and topoclimatic settings. Preliminary estimations of the annual water balance, however, are still afflicted with major uncertainties owing to methodical limits in the spatial estimation of precipitation rates and widely lacking evapotranspiration records, particularly in the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent high mountain systems. Given the importance of the mountainous water resources for the affected economies, further regional investigations on the water cycle and its components are vital future tasks for climate research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of some of the conceptual and methodological progress that has been made in the area of climate research is presented. A discussion of current thinking on the etiology of climates follows, and an integrative conceptual scheme is developed. This perspective is based on Mead's (1934) symbolic interactionism as the process through which individuals come to attach meaning to events. Implications of this approach to the etiology of climates are discussed with respect to measurement issues, the management of climate acquisition in organizations, and the change and development of climates over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Asian summer monsoon is a complex coupled human‐natural system that poses unique challenges for understanding its evolution alongside increasing anthropogenic activities. Rapid and substantial changes in land‐use, land‐management and industrial activities over the subcontinent, and warming in the Indian Ocean, have influenced the South Asian summer monsoon. These might continue to be significant drivers in the near‐term along with rising global greenhouse gas emissions. Deciphering the region's vulnerability to climate change requires an understanding of how these anthropogenic activities, acting on a range of spatial scales, have shaped the monsoon spatially and temporally. This review summarizes historical changes in monsoon rainfall characteristics, associated mechanisms, and the role of anthropogenic forcings, focusing on subseasonal variability and extreme events. Several studies have found intensified subseasonal extremes across parts of India and an increase in spatial variability of rainfall despite an overall weakening of seasonal rainfall in the monsoon core. However, understanding these changes remains challenging because of uncertainties in observations and climate models. The mechanisms and relative influences of various anthropogenic activities, particularly on subseasonal extremes, remain relatively underexplored. Large biases in the representation of relevant processes in global climate models limit the ability to attribute historical changes and make reliable projections. Nevertheless, recent advances in modeling these processes using higher‐resolution modeling frameworks provide new tools to investigate the Indian summer monsoon's response to various anthropogenic forcings. There is an urgent need to understand how these forcings interact to shape climate variability and change in this vulnerable region. This article is categorized under: Paleoclimates and Current Trends > Earth System Behavior Influence of anthropogenic forcings on rainfall variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change researchers argue that a residual domain exists beyond the limits of adaptation to prevent deleterious climate change impacts: this has been labeled as "loss and damage." Over the last 8 years, there has been significant growth in loss and damage scholarship thus making it imperative to take stock of what we know already and directions for future research. We undertook a quantitative review of academic publications (n = 122) in the loss and damage field to date and documented study characteristics, thematic areas, trends, gaps, and opportunities. The first publication appeared in 2010 before a significant increase in published research after 2013. Although increasingly diverse over time, loss and damage studies have primarily focused on technical, political, and normative questions. Our analysis suggests the following: that researchers predominately conceptualize loss and damage as "limits to adaptation"; that the literature is more practical (i.e., descriptive, does not challenge underlying presuppositions) than critical (i.e., challenges underlying presuppositions) in orientation; that loss and damage is conceived as both an occurring and future condition; and that economic dimensions of loss and damage are prioritized in studies. Recommended future research directions include empirical and theoretical explorations of the potential for transformational change; understanding what people value and how they can engage with loss and grief; ensuring the perspectives of the most vulnerable groups are included in decision‐making; and greater policy‐relevant research and critical analyses of loss and damage conceptualizations and the Warsaw International Mechanism. This article is categorized under: Climate, Nature, and Ethics > Comparative Environmental Values While a variety of factors wreak havoc on subsistent food systems in the Bedamuni tribe of Western Province, Papua New Guinea causing loss and damage to critical food crops, changing local climatic conditions such as precipitation regimes have increasingly had the most impact (photo: Guy Jackson, 2018). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of climate services, which provide globally complete data products in a ready‐to‐use form, the context of climate data is in danger of being neglected or forgotten. However, the historical and present‐day context imprinted on this climate data is important in its own right. The data depend on political, economic and technological factors, as we show with a range of data coverage maps. We term awareness of and sensitivity to this context‐dependence "climate data empathy," and argue that context should be seen as a source of information to be communicated along with the data. Such context not only provides additional information about the data products, but may help in designing communication strategies and contribute more generally to raising awareness of the contingency of environmental data. Decision making should thus make use of both climate data and its context. This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture > Technological Aspects and Ideas Climate measurements also measure the needs of the powerful. Coverage from 1947 shows nation states, trade, and a colonial world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]