Precipitation extremes over territory of Belarus under current climate change

The study presents an investigation of current and future changes in precipitation regime over territory of Belarus. An assessment of precipitation means and extremes and droughts indices was provided for period of 1948–2019 and more detailed analysis have been carried out for period of climate change in 1989–2019. The precipitation expected changes were studied for period of 2021–2099. It was established that precipitation growth up to 20–30 % in winter during 1989–2019 in comparison by 1948–1988, is connected with increase the number of days with weak precipitation and caused by growing duration of liquid precipitation falling. In summer the reducing of rain falling duration was noticed over territory of Belarus. At the same time the significant growth of precipitation maximal totals per day by 20–30 % was detected. The largest growth was found in the south of the country. Dry days number raised by 1–4 days and dry and hot days numbers raised by 1–2 days per decade. The repeatability of atmosphere droughts of different gradations increased up to 2–26 % by the majority of meteorological stations. According to climate projections based on the EURO-CORDEX-11, the growth of yearly and seasonal precipitation is expected over territory of Belarus. The precipitation increase is connected with growth of intense precipitation. At the same time, the dry periods duration is projected to rise in the warm part of the year. These tendencies are characterised the climate extremeness increase in the current century.

Periodicities and ENSO relationships of the seasonal precipitation over six major sub-divisions of India

A spectral analysis of the 1848-1995 (148 year) time series of Sontakke and Singh (1996) representing estimates of summer monsoon (June-September) precipitation amounts over six homogeneous zones (Northwest NW, North central NC, Northeast NE. West Peninsular WP, East Peninsular EP, South Peninsular SP) and the whole of India (AI) revealed significant periodicities in the QBO and QTO regions (2-3 years and 3-4 years) as also higher periodicities, some common to all zones. To study the ENSO relationship, a finer classification of years was adopted. For the All India summer monsoon rainfall as also for all the zones except NE, Unambiguous ENSOW (where El Nino existed and SOI minima and SST maxima were in the middle of the calendar year i.e., May-August), were overwhelmingly associated with droughts and the cold (C) events were associated with floods. For other types of events, the results were uncertain and a few extreme rainfalls occurred even during some Non-events.

Wavelet analysis for seasonal precipitation variations of Yuanmou dry-hot valley in recent 50 years

The dry-hot valley is a special kind of degradation ecosystem region in Hengduan Mountains. Variations of seasonal precipitation have important influnces on its landscape patterns and agricultural activities. Based on the monthly and annual precipitation data from 1956 to 2006, the multi-time scales characteristics of seasonal and annual variations of precipitation in the past 50a in the Yuanmou County had been analyzed using Meyer wavelet analysis in this paper. The periodic oscillation of precipitation variation and the points of abrupt change at different time scales along the time series are discovered and the main periods of every serial are confirmed. It was showed that the periodic oscillation of 8-12a and 4-6a for the seasonal and annual precipitation variation are obvious. The time-frequency local change characteristic of Meyer wavelet analysis can demonstrate the fine structures of precipitation and the method provides a new way in analyzing climate multi-time scales characteristics and forecasting short-term climate. The localization characteristics of time -frequency for wavelet analysis can demonstrate the detailed structures of rainfall. The wavelet analysis can be an alternative approach to analyze climate multi-time scales characteristics and forecast short-term climate variations. The research on the regularity of seasonal precipitation variation in the dry-hot valley region has a great guidance meaning to the agriculture production and resilience in flood prevention.

Improved trend-aware post-processing of GCM seasonal precipitation forecasts

Climate trends have been observed over the recent decades in many parts of the world, but current global climate models (GCMs) for seasonal climate forecasting often fail to capture these trends. As a result, model forecasts may be biased above or below the trendline. In our previous research, we developed a trend-aware forecast post-processing method to overcome this problem. The method was demonstrated to be effective for embedding observed trends into seasonal temperature forecasts. In this study, we further develop the method for post-processing GCM seasonal precipitation forecasts. We introduce new formulation and evaluation features to cater for special characteristics of precipitation amounts, such as having a zero lower bound and highly positive skewness. We apply the improved method to calibrate ECMWF SEAS5 forecasts of seasonal precipitation for Australia. Our evaluation shows that the calibrated forecasts reproduce observed trends over the hindcast period of 36 years. In some regions where observed trends are statistically significant, forecast skill is greatly improved by embedding trends into the forecasts. In most regions, the calibrated forecasts outperform the raw forecasts in terms of bias, skill, and reliability. Wider applications of the new trend-aware post-processing method are expected to boost user confidence in seasonal precipitation forecasts.

Desert Climate Regionalization for Joshua Tree National Park and Surrounding Areas Using New Climate Network Observations

A new amalgamation of weather stations in and around Joshua Tree National Park in southeastern California, USA has allowed for objective climate analysis regionalization at a much finer scale than past studies. First, it sets a baseline for many regions within the park’s boundaries which were not subject to direct observations. Second these new observations are key to understanding shifting microclimate regimes in a desert ecosystem prone to the effects of climate change. Principal component analysis was used to regionalize the climate network based on monthly temperature and precipitation climate observations and standardized anomalies. Both the observation values and standardized climate anomalies identified regional boundaries. In general, these boundaries align with traditional ideas and past studies of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts based on elevation (specifically the 1000m contour) for the National Park. Standardized anomaly values identified a boundary based on seasonal precipitation, while observation values identified a boundary based on elevation. The boundary line within the park is similar for both data approaches, with the boundary running along the higher western third of the park. Conversely, the two methods differ significantly in the Coachella Valley, where low elevations and low precipitation meets winter dominated seasonal precipitation. This study highlights the importance and opportunity of field observations to create climatological and ecological regionalization, as well as constructs a baseline to monitor and manage shifting desert regions in the future.