Wintertime variability of Mediterranean precipitation and its links with large-scale circulation anomalies

Quadrelli, Roberta; Pavan, V.; Molteni, Franco

doi:10.1007/s003820000121

Cited by 159 publications

(101 citation statements)

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“…In general, less significance is achieved relating NAO to small scale precipitation levels (Guijarro, 1999) than with broad scale regional precipitation patterns, as those obtained after performing Principal Component Analysis or other similar multivariate tools that reduce variability and filter noise, as found e.g. by Bartzokas et al (2003) or Quadrelli et al (2001). The latter refers an observed trend to lower winter precipitation in the Emilia-Romagna Italian region that is in accordance with the observed decreasing winter frequency of Genoa cyclones showed in Table 2.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time variability of cyclonic geostrophic circulation in the Mediterranean

2006

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Abstract.Interannual variability and trends of the surface geostrophic cyclonic circulation and cyclone frequency in Western and Eastern Mediterranean areas are analyzed, based on a cyclone data base derived from the ERA-40 ECWMF reanalysis (within the MEDEX project tasks), spanning from September/1957 to August/2002. In this 45 years, the cyclonic circulation show a significant decrease in the Western Mediterranean, mostly in winter and spring, and an increase in the Eastern, mainly due to the summer and autumn increase in the frequency of thermal lows.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time variability of cyclonic geostrophic circulation in the Mediterranean

2006

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“…In the Mediterranean, the influence of the NAO on local weather has been demonstrated in relation to air and sea temperatures, precipitations and river discharges (e.g. Quadrelli et al 2001;Forchhammer and Post 2004;Brandimarte et al 2011), with a strength that is highest in the western part of the basin and becomes weaker in the easternmost areas (López-Moreno et al 2011). Usually in southern Europe, positive values of the winter NAO index are associated with cold and dry weather conditions, while the opposite (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lagged influence of North Atlantic Oscillation on population dynamics of a Mediterranean terrestrial salamander

et al. 2015

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The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a largescale climatic pattern that strongly influences the atmospheric circulation in the northern Hemisphere and by consequence the long-term variability of marine and terrestrial ecosystem over great part of northern Europe and western Mediterranean. In the Mediterranean, the effects of the NAO on vertebrates has been studied mainly on bird populations but was rarely analysed in ectothermic animals, and in particular in amphibians. In this study, we investigated the relationships between winter, spring and summer NAO indexes and the long-term population dynamics of the plethodontid salamander Speleomantes strinatii. This terrestrial salamander was monitored inside an artificial cave in NW Italy for 24 consecutive years. The relationships between seasonal NAO indexes and the salamander dynamics were assessed by cross-correlation function (CCF) analysis, after prewhitening the time series by autoregressive moving average statistical modelling. Results of CCF analyses indicated that the salamander abundance varied in relation to the one-year ahead winter NAO (P= 0.018), while no relationships were found with spring and summer indexes. These results strengthen some previous findings that suggested a high sensitivity of temperate terrestrial amphibians to wintertime climatic conditions.

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“…Corte-Real et al, 1995) and show good correlations with rainfall (e.g. Trigo and DaCamara, 2000;Trigo and Palutikof, 2001;Quadrelli et al, 2001;Palutikof et al, 2002;Knippertz et al, 2003a). CWTs are objectively calculated according to Jones et al (1993) for a region in southern Morocco located between the high Atlas Mountains and the Saharan desert.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several authors have successfully associated precipitation in the Mediterranean and northern Morocco with the phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO, e.g. Quadrelli et al, 2001;Knippertz et al, 2003a), while seasonal precipitation in spring is also at least partly influenced by the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO, e.g. Nicholson and Kim, 1997;Knippertz et al, 2003c).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CorteReal et al, 1995), patterns of sea-level pressure (SLP) or 500 hPa height are used frequently for downscaling purposes (e.g. Trigo and DaCamara, 2000;Trigo and Palutikof, 2001;Quadrelli et al, 2001;Palutikof et al, 2002). Circulation Weather Types (CWTs) calculated from daily SLP fields are known to have significant influence on dynamically induced rainfall for mid European regions (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Downscaling of current and future rainfall climatologies for southern Morocco. Part I: Downscaling method and current climatology

Huebener

Kerschgens

2007

Intl Journal of Climatology

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Abstract:The use of a statistical-dynamical downscaling approach to obtain a high-resolution rainfall climatology for a subtropical region in southern Morocco is analysed. The statistical part of the downscaling uses Circulation Weather Types (CWTs) as a measure for near-surface wind fields calculated from sea-level pressure (SLP) data. The daily CWTs are correlated with daily rainfall data at three different climate stations in the region for the period 1978-1997 and systematic differences are discussed. Results are viewed for one extreme dry year (1984) and one extreme wet year (1989) to show the limits of purely statistical downscaling.Dynamical downscaling is realized for representative days to enable statistical-dynamical downscaling. Comparison of statistically-dynamically downscaled rainfall with measured rainfall for the year 2002 and climatological results show that the method is capable of capturing the relevant mechanisms triggering rainfall in the area. For extreme dry (wet) years, rainfall is overestimated (underestimated) by the method and errors might occur even for normal years. However, application to a climatology calculated for the period 1958-1997 via analysing daily SLP fields from NCEP Reanalyses gives satisfactory results. For sufficiently long periods, the method is well capable of producing a reliable high-resolution rainfall climatology. We will therefore apply the method to climate change simulations in part II of this paper.

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Wintertime variability of Mediterranean precipitation and its links with large-scale circulation anomalies

Cited by 159 publications

References 0 publications

Time variability of cyclonic geostrophic circulation in the Mediterranean

Time variability of cyclonic geostrophic circulation in the Mediterranean

Lagged influence of North Atlantic Oscillation on population dynamics of a Mediterranean terrestrial salamander

Downscaling of current and future rainfall climatologies for southern Morocco. Part I: Downscaling method and current climatology

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