Weather whiplash: Trends in rapid temperature changes in a warming climate

Abstract

Both research and media attention has shown an increasing interest in rapidly changing weather, colloquially termed “weather whiplash” events. This research examines the spatial and seasonal variability of trends in seasonally standardized short‐term temperature ranges across the globe. Trends are calculated for three different “range windows”: 7‐day ranges, 1‐day departure, and diurnal (24‐hr) temperature ranges. Results show that globally, over the 70‐year period of record 7‐ and 1‐day ranges are increasing substantially in all seasons, while diurnal trends are only changing (decreasing) significantly in boreal autumn. Since 1985, however, ranges at all three time windows have increased significantly. The most widespread changes are occurring as significant increases in these ranges in the Southern Ocean, Africa, and South America and in regions of coastal upwelling. Significant decreases in these ranges are noted mostly at the Arctic Ocean confluence with the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, especially in the Greenland, Iceland, and Norwegian Seas, and more recently, in northeastern Canada. Oceanic trends appear driven by changes in wind speeds, especially in the Southern Hemisphere where increasing open‐ocean winds are nearly ubiquitous. Trends in temperature variability over land are largely inverse of the long‐term changes in cloud cover. This research adds to a growing body of climate change literature examining temperature variability trends, and it represents the first examination of full 70‐year trends of many variables contained in the recently released ERA5 reanalysis.

A survey on the effect of global warming in Canada

“…The study demonstrated that globally, over the 70-year period of record 7-and 1-day ranges were increasing significantly in all seasons, while diurnal trends were only decreasing substantially only in boreal autumn. Since 1985, nevertheless, ranges at all three-time windows increased substantially (Lee, 2022). The most widespread changes were happening as substantial increases in these ranges in the Southern Ocean, Africa, and South America and in regions of coastal upwelling.…”

“…Many people have demonstrated an increasing interest in quickly changing weather, colloquially termed "weather whiplash" events. Lee (2022) investigated the variability of trends in seasonally standardized short-term temperature ranges in the world. He measured trends for three various "range windows": 7-day ranges, 1-day departure, and diurnal (24-hr) temperature ranges.…”

Is Greenhouse Rainwater Harvesting Enough to Satisfy the Water Demand of Indoor Crops? Application to the Bolivian Altiplano

“…In recent decades, global warming has exacerbated water scarcity in the Andean Altiplano. Among other impacts, we should mention the dramatic decline in the extension of tropical Andean glaciers, as described in, e.g., [1][2][3][4][5], and the rise of air temperatures [6]. It is expected that both factors will favor in the mid-term a reduction in the amount of water available for human consumption and crop irrigation [7][8][9], and will increase the water demand of crops because of the higher evapotranspiration rates [10].…”

Native annual forbs decline in California coastal prairies over 15 years despite grazing

“…In 2016 and 2017, we sought to answer whether such grazing continues to benefit native annual forbs in California's coastal prairies, particularly given the extreme drought and temperature conditions in the years preceding the study. California is already experiencing, 1) progressively more 'extreme' precipitation, wherein rainfall events occur less frequently, but in larger magnitudes; 2) increasing 'whiplash' weather, when exceptionally dry and wet periods follow one another with minimal change in net precipitation; and 3) rising temperatures [29][30][31]. Over the last few decades, California grasslands have experienced increasing temperatures and aridity [32] and a 1-in-1200-year drought from 2012-2014 [33].…”