A 133-year record of climate change and variability from Sheffield, England

Cropper, Thomas E. and Cropper, Paul 2016. A 133-year record of climate change and variability from Sheffield, England. Climate 4 (3) , 46. 10.3390/cli4030046

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (4MB) | Preview

Abstract

A 133-year length (1883–2015) daily climate record from Sheffield, England (53.38°N, 1.49°W) is analysed. Across the entire length of the record, there are significant warming trends annually and for all seasons, whereas precipitation shows a significant annual increase but the seasonal trends, whilst all positive, are not significant. Trends in extreme indices mirror the mean long-term warming and wetting signal. Record hot and cold daily temperatures and precipitation amounts are associated with summer anticyclonic conditions, an anomalous easterly winter jet stream and summer cyclonic activity, respectively. Whilst there are large uncertainties surrounding the calculation of return periods for the daily maximum, minimum and precipitation records from a single record, our best estimates suggest that in the current climate (2015), the existing records have return periods of 38, 529 and 252 years, respectively. The influence of several climate indices on mean and extreme indices are considered on seasonal scales, with the North Atlantic Oscillation displaying the strongest relationship. Future mean maximum temperature and precipitation alongside extreme indices representing the warmest and wettest day of the year are analysed from two downscaled climate model output archives under analysis periods of a 1.5 and 2 degree warmer world and the 2080–2099 end of 21st century period. For this mid-latitude location, there is minimal difference in model projections between a 1.5 and 2 degree world, but a significant difference between the 1.5/2 degree world and the end of century 2080–2099 period under the most severe climate warming scenarios.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Earth and Environmental Sciences
Uncontrolled Keywords:	climate; Sheffield; extremes; global warming; cmip5; temperature; precipitation
Publisher:	MDPI Publishing
ISSN:	2225-1154
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 April 2017
Date of Acceptance:	5 September 2016
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 08:51
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/99957

Citation Data

Cited 8 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item