The 2003 European summer heatwaves and drought –synoptic diagnosis and impacts

Fink, Andreas H.; Brücher, Tim; Krüger, Andreas; Leckebusch, Gregor C.; Pinto, Joaquim G.; Ulbrich, Uwe

doi:10.1256/wea.73.04

Cited by 423 publications

(360 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…An alternative source of warm air masses causing the occurrence of heat waves in the analysed region was the inflow of air masses from the south and the south-west. The analyses of the circulation conditions concerning the selected heat waves in many regions of Europe showed that these occur mainly during anticyclonic weather (Black et al 2004;Fink et al 2004;Founda and Giannakopoulos 2009). The occurrence of the warmest WS was connected with a higher SLP and z500 hPa and more T850 anomalies than on average during all of the WSs.…”

Section: Discussion and Summarymentioning

confidence: 95%

Warm spells in Northern Europe in relation to atmospheric circulation

Tomczyk

Piotrowski

Bednorz

2016

Theor Appl Climatol

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This study describes warm spells in Northern Europe and determines the synoptic situations that cause their occurrence. In this article, a relatively warm day was defined as a day when the maximum temperature exceeded the 95th annual percentile, and a warm spell (WS) was considered to be a sequence of at least five relatively warm days. In the analysed multiannual period and within the investigated area, 24 (Kallax) to 53 (Oslo) WSs were observed. The occurrence of WSs was mainly connected with positive anomalies of sea level pressure and a 500-hPa isobaric surface, displaying the presence of high-pressure systems. This occurrence was also accompanied by positive T850 anomalies.

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Section: Discussion and Summarymentioning

confidence: 95%

Warm spells in Northern Europe in relation to atmospheric circulation

Tomczyk

Piotrowski

Bednorz

2016

Theor Appl Climatol

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“…2a,c). A typical result of the southward movement of a huge anticyclone loaded with high ozone levels from Western and Central Europe to the Mediterranean is the "August heatwave" of the year 2003 (Black et al 2004;Fink et al 2004). Exceptionally long-lasting and spatially extensive episodes of high ozone mixing ratios were measured in Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, North and Central Italy during that time (Solberg et al 2005;Vautard et al 2005;Cristofanelli et al 2007).…”

Section: Simultaneous Surface Co and So 2 Measurements On Gozomentioning

confidence: 99%

A 10-year study of background surface ozone concentrations on the island of Gozo in the Central Mediterranean

et al. 2008

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A 10-year study of surface ozone mixing ratios in the Central Mediterranean was conducted based on continuous ozone measurements from 1997 to 2006 by a background regional Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) station on the island of Gozo. The mean annual maximum mixing ratio is of the order of 66 ppbv in April-May with a broad secondary maximum of 64 ppbv in July-September. No long-term increase or decrease in the background level of surface ozone could be observed over the last 10 years. This is contrary to observations made in the Eastern Mediterranean, where a slow decrease in the background ozone mixing ratio was observed over the past 7 years. Despite the very high average annual ozone mixing ratio exceeding 50 ppbv-in fact, the highest average background ozone mixing ratio ever measured in Europe-, the diurnal O 3 max /O 3 min index of <1.40 indicates that the island of Gozo is a good site for measuring background surface ozone. However, frequent photosmog events from June to September during the past 10 years with ozone mixing ratios exceeding 90 ppbv indicate that the Central Mediterranean is prone to long-range transport of air pollutants from Europe by northerly winds. This was particularly evident during the so-called "August heatwave" of the year 2003 when the overall ozone mixing ratio was 4.6 ppbv higher than the average of all other 9 months of August since 1997. Air mass back-trajectory analysis of the August 2003 photosmog episodes on Gozo confirmed that ozone pollution originated from the European continent. Regression analysis was used to analyse the 10-year data set in order to model the behaviour of the ozone mixing ratio in terms of the meteorological parameters of wind speed, relative humidity, global radiation, temperature, month of year, wind sector,

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“…Recent analyses show clear summer warming and drying trends in Europe in recent decades [11,18,22,27,32]. Summer 2003 was exceptionally hot over most of central and western Europe, ranging from Spain to Hungary and from Iceland to Greece [11,32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%