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Recent warm and cold daily winter temperature extremes in the Northern Hemisphere
Author(s) -
Guirguis Kristen,
Gershunov Alexander,
Schwartz Rachel,
Bennett Stephen
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2011gl048762
Subject(s) - climatology , northern hemisphere , context (archaeology) , north atlantic oscillation , pacific decadal oscillation , southern oscillation , siberian high , environmental science , el niño southern oscillation , extreme cold , general circulation model , climate change , geology , geography , oceanography , east asia , paleontology , archaeology , china
The winters of 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 brought frigid temperatures to parts of Europe, Russia, and the U.S. We analyzed regional and Northern Hemispheric (NH) daily temperature extremes for these two consecutive winters in the historical context of the past 63 years. While some parts clearly experienced very cold temperatures, the NH was not anomalously cold. Extreme warm events were much more prevalent in both magnitude and spatial extent. Importantly, the persistent negative state of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) explained the bulk of the observed cold anomalies, however the warm extremes were anomalous even accounting for the NAO and also considering the states of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). These winters' widespread and intense warm extremes together with a continuing hemispheric decline in cold snap activity was a pattern fully consistent with a continuation of the warming trend observed in recent decades.