Open AccessLight rain events change over North America, Europe, and Asia for 1973–2009
Author(s) -
Qian Yun,
Gong Daoyi,
Leung Ruby
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
atmospheric science letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 45
ISSN - 1530-261X
DOI - 10.1002/asl.298
Subject(s) - precipitation , climatology , environmental science , precipitable water , climate change , east asia , global warming , geography , meteorology , china , geology , oceanography , archaeology
Analysis of daily precipitation data reveals diverse long‐term trends of light rain events in North America (NA), Europe (EU), and Asia (AS), but overall a decreasing trend is found from 1973–2009, especially over East Asia, where a remarkable shift from light to heavy rain events has been observed. Although it has been argued that global warming may lead to a shift from light to heavy rain, regionally little correspondence is found between light rain trends and temperature/precipitable water (PW) trends. This argues for the need to include other factors such as atmospheric circulation and aerosol changes that affect regional rain rates and cloud processes. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society