scholarly journals Optimizing Input Data for Gridding Climate Normals for Canada

2012 ◽  
Vol 51 (8) ◽  
pp. 1508-1518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron F. Hopkinson ◽  
Michael F. Hutchinson ◽  
Daniel W. McKenney ◽  
Ewa J. Milewska ◽  
Pia Papadopol

AbstractSpatial models of 1971–2000 monthly climate normals for daily maximum and minimum temperature and total precipitation are required for many applications. The World Meteorological Organization’s recommended standard for the calculation of a normal value is a complete 30-yr record with a minimal amount of missing data. Only 650 stations (~16%) in Canada meet this criterion for the period 1971–2000. Thin-plate smoothing-spline analyses, as implemented by the Australian National University Splines (ANUSPLIN) package, are used to assess the utility of differing amounts of station data in estimating nationwide monthly climate normals. The data include 1) only those stations (1169) with 20 or more years of data, 2) all stations (3835) with 5 or more years of data in at least one month, and 3) as in case 2 but with data adjusted through the most statistically significant linear-regression relationship with a nearby long-term station to 20 or more years (3983 stations). Withheld-station tests indicate that the regression-adjusted normals as in dataset 3 generally yield the best results for all three climatological elements, but the unadjusted normals as in dataset 2 are competitive with the adjusted normals in spring and autumn, reflecting the known longer spatial correlation scales in these seasons. The summary mean absolute differences between the ANUSPLIN estimates and the observations at 48 spatially representative withheld stations for dataset 3 are 0.36°C, 0.66°C, and 4.7 mm, respectively, for maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and precipitation. These are respectively 18%, 7%, and 18% smaller than the summary mean absolute differences for the long-term normals in dataset 1.

2011 ◽  
Vol 50 (8) ◽  
pp. 1654-1665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ron F. Hopkinson ◽  
Daniel W. McKenney ◽  
Ewa J. Milewska ◽  
Michael F. Hutchinson ◽  
Pia Papadopol ◽  
...  

AbstractOn 1 July 1961, the climatological day was redefined to end at 0600 UTC at all principal climate stations in Canada. Prior to that, the climatological day at principal stations ended at 1200 UTC for maximum temperature and precipitation and 0000 UTC for minimum temperature and was similar to the climatological day at ordinary stations. Hutchinson et al. reported occasional larger-than-expected residuals at 50 withheld stations when the Australian National University Spline (ANUSPLIN) interpolation scheme was applied to daily data for 1961–2003, and it was suggested that these larger residuals were in part due to the existence of different climatological days. In this study, daily minimum and maximum temperatures at principal stations were estimated using hourly temperatures for the same climatological day as local ordinary climate stations for the period 1953–2007. Daily precipitation was estimated at principal stations using synoptic precipitation data for the climatological day ending at 1200 UTC, which, for much of the country, was close to the time of the morning observation at ordinary climate stations. At withheld principal stations, the climatological-day adjustments led to the virtual elimination of large residuals in maximum and minimum temperature and a marked reduction in precipitation residuals. Across all 50 withheld stations the climatological day adjustments led to significant reductions, by around 12% for daily maximum temperature, 15% for daily minimum temperature, and 22% for precipitation, in the residuals reported by Hutchinson et al.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 3506
Author(s):  
Gandomè Mayeul Leger Davy Quenum ◽  
Francis Nkrumah ◽  
Nana Ama Browne Klutse ◽  
Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla

Climate variability and change constitute major challenges for Africa, especially West Africa (WA), where an important increase in extreme climate events has been noticed. Therefore, it appears essential to analyze characteristics and trends of some key climatological parameters. Thus, this study addressed spatiotemporal variabilities and trends in regard to temperature and precipitation extremes by using 21 models of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project version 6 (CMIP6) and 24 extreme indices from the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI). First, the CMIP6 variables were evaluated with observations (CHIRPS, CHIRTS, and CRU) of the period 1983–2014; then, the extreme indices from 1950 to 2014 were computed. The innovative trend analysis (ITA), Sen’s slope, and Mann–Kendall tests were utilized to track down trends in the computed extreme climate indices. Increasing trends were observed for the maxima of daily maximum temperature (TXX) and daily minimum temperature (TXN) as well as the maximum and minimum of the minimum temperature (TNX and TNN). This upward trend of daily maximum temperature (Tmax) and daily minimum temperature (Tmin) was enhanced with a significant increase in warm days/nights (TX90p/TN90p) and a significantly decreasing trend in cool days/nights (TX10p/TN10p). The precipitation was widely variable over WA, with more than 85% of the total annual water in the study domain collected during the monsoon period. An upward trend in consecutive dry days (CDD) and a downward trend in consecutive wet days (CWD) influenced the annual total precipitation on wet days (PRCPTOT). The results also depicted an upward trend in SDII and R30mm, which, additionally to the trends of CDD and CWD, could be responsible for localized flood-like situations along the coastal areas. The study identified the 1970s dryness as well as the slight recovery of the 1990s, which it indicated occurred in 1992 over West Africa.


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather MacDonald ◽  
Daniel W. McKenney ◽  
Pia Papadopol ◽  
Kevin Lawrence ◽  
John Pedlar ◽  
...  

AbstractWe present historical monthly spatial models of temperature and precipitation generated from the North American dataset version “j” from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Centres for Environmental Information (NCEI). Monthly values of minimum/maximum temperature and precipitation for 1901–2016 were modelled for continental United States and Canada. Compared to similar spatial models published in 2006 by Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN), the current models show less error. The Root Generalized Cross Validation (RTGCV), a measure of the predictive error of the surfaces akin to a spatially averaged standard predictive error estimate, averaged 0.94 °C for maximum temperature models, 1.3 °C for minimum temperature and 25.2% for total precipitation. Mean prediction errors for the temperature variables were less than 0.01 °C, using all stations. In comparison, precipitation models showed a dry bias (compared to recorded values) of 0.5 mm or 0.7% of the surface mean. Mean absolute predictive errors for all stations were 0.7 °C for maximum temperature, 1.02 °C for minimum temperature, and 13.3 mm (19.3% of the surface mean) for monthly precipitation.


1983 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 346-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lance F. Bosart

Consensus (the average of all forecasts) skill levels in forecasting daily maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation probability across six class intervals, and precipitation amount at the State University of New York at Albany are reviewed for the period 1977–82. Skill is measured relative to a climatological control. Forecasts are made for four consecutive 24 h periods for Albany, N.Y., beginning at 1800 GMT of the current day. For minimum temperature, the skill levels average 57%, 41%, 26%, and 15%, respectively, for 24, 48, 72, and 96 h in advance. For maximum temperature, a more limited sample yields corresponding skill levels of 84%, 49%, 34%, and 19% for 12, 36, 60, 84 h ahead. Linear regression analysis yields little in the way of a definitive trend, given the smallness of the explained variance. Comparison with other readily available objective and subjective operational guidance establishes the credibility of the consensus forecast.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 489
Author(s):  
Jinxiu Liu ◽  
Weihao Shen ◽  
Yaqian He

India has experienced extensive land cover and land use change (LCLUC). However, there is still limited empirical research regarding the impact of LCLUC on climate extremes in India. Here, we applied statistical methods to assess how cropland expansion has influenced temperature extremes in India from 1982 to 2015 using a new land cover and land use dataset and ECMWF Reanalysis V5 (ERA5) climate data. Our results show that during the last 34 years, croplands in western India increased by ~33.7 percentage points. This cropland expansion shows a significantly negative impact on the maxima of daily maximum temperature (TXx), while its impacts on the maxima of daily minimum temperature and the minima of daily maximum and minimum temperature are limited. It is estimated that if cropland expansion had not taken place in western India over the 1982 to 2015 period, TXx would likely have increased by 0.74 (±0.64) °C. The negative impact of croplands on reducing the TXx extreme is likely due to evaporative cooling from intensified evapotranspiration associated with croplands, resulting in increased latent heat flux and decreased sensible heat flux. This study underscores the important influences of cropland expansion on temperature extremes and can be applicable to other geographic regions experiencing LCLUC.


2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (9) ◽  
pp. 2148-2162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bárbara Tencer ◽  
Andrew Weaver ◽  
Francis Zwiers

AbstractThe occurrence of individual extremes such as temperature and precipitation extremes can have a great impact on the environment. Agriculture, energy demands, and human health, among other activities, can be affected by extremely high or low temperatures and by extremely dry or wet conditions. The simultaneous or proximate occurrence of both types of extremes could lead to even more profound consequences, however. For example, a dry period can have more negative consequences on agriculture if it is concomitant with or followed by a period of extremely high temperatures. This study analyzes the joint occurrence of very wet conditions and high/low temperature events at stations in Canada. More than one-half of the stations showed a significant positive relationship at the daily time scale between warm nights (daily minimum temperature greater than the 90th percentile) or warm days (daily maximum temperature above the 90th percentile) and heavy-precipitation events (daily precipitation exceeding the 75th percentile), with the greater frequencies found for the east and southwest coasts during autumn and winter. Cold days (daily maximum temperature below the 10th percentile) occur together with intense precipitation more frequently during spring and summer. Simulations by regional climate models show good agreement with observations in the seasonal and spatial variability of the joint distribution, especially when an ensemble of simulations was used.


Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saima Nauman ◽  
Zed Zulkafli ◽  
Abdul Halim Bin Ghazali ◽  
Badronnisa Yusuf

The study aims to evaluate the long-term changes in meteorological parameters and to quantify their impacts on water resources of the Haro River watershed located on the upstream side of Khanpur Dam in Pakistan. The climate data was obtained from the NASA Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projection (NEX-GDDP) for MIROC-ESM model under two Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios. The model data was bias corrected and the performance of the bias correction was assessed statistically. Soil and Water Assessment Tool was used for the hydrological simulation of watershed followed by model calibration using Sequential Uncertainty Fitting version-2. The study is useful for devising strategies for future management of Khanpur Dam. The study indicated that in the future, at Murree station (P-1), the maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation were anticipated to increase from 3.1 °C (RCP 4.5) to 4.0 °C (RCP 8.5), 3.2 °C (RCP 4.5) to 4.3 °C (RCP 8.5) and 8.6% to 13.5% respectively, in comparison to the baseline period. Similarly, at Islamabad station (P-2), the maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation were projected to increase from 3.3 °C (RCP 4.5) to 4.1 °C (RCP 8.5), 3.3 °C (RCP 4.5) to 4.2 °C (RCP 8.5) and 14.0% to 21.2% respectively compared to baseline period. The streamflows at Haro River basin were expected to rise from 8.7 m3/s to 9.3 m3/s.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2583-2603 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. El Kenawy ◽  
J. I. López-Moreno ◽  
S. M. Vicente-Serrano

Abstract. Spatial and temporal characteristics of extreme temperature events in northeastern Spain have been investigated. The analysis is based on long-term, high-quality, and homogenous daily maximum and minimum temperature of 128 observatories spanning the period from 1960 to 2006. A total of 21 indices were used to assess changes in both the cold and hot tails of the daily temperature distributions. The presence of trends in temperature extremes was assessed by means of the Mann-Kendall test. However, the autocorrelation function (ACF) and a bootstrap methodology were used to account for the influence of serial correlation and cross-correlation on the trend assessment. In general, the observed changes are more prevalent in hot extremes than in cold extremes. This finding can largely be linked to the increase found in the mean maximum temperature during the last few decades. The results indicate a significant increase in the frequency and intensity of most of the hot temperature extremes. An increase in warm nights (TN90p: 3.3 days decade−1), warm days (TX90p: 2.7 days decade−1), tropical nights (TR20: 0.6 days decade−1) and the annual high maximum temperature (TXx: 0.27 °C decade−1) was detected in the 47-yr period. In contrast, most of the indices related to cold temperature extremes (e.g. cold days (TX10p), cold nights (TN10p), very cold days (TN1p), and frost days (FD0)) demonstrated a decreasing but statistically insignificant trend. Although there is no evidence of a long-term trend in cold extremes, significant interdecadal variations were noted. Almost no significant trends in temperature variability indices (e.g. diurnal temperature range (DTR) and growing season length (GSL)) are detected. Spatially, the coastal areas along the Mediterranean Sea and the Cantabrian Sea experienced stronger warming compared with mainland areas. Given that only few earlier studies analyzed observed changes in temperature extremes at fine spatial resolution across the Iberian Peninsula, the results of this work can improve our understanding of climatology of temperature extremes. Also, these findings can have different hydrological, ecological and agricultural implications (e.g. crop yields, energy consumption, land use planning and water resources management).


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