Climatic Changes and Their Relation to Weather Types in a Transboundary Mountainous Region in Central Europe

Andreas Hoy, Nils Feske, Petr Štěpánek, Petr Skalák, Andreas Schmitt and Petra Schneider
Additional contact information
Andreas Hoy: Saxon State Agency for Environment, Agriculture and Geology, Department of Climate, Air, Noise and Radiation, Pillnitzer Platz 3, D-01326 Dresden, Germany
Nils Feske: Saxon State Agency for Environment, Agriculture and Geology, Department of Climate, Air, Noise and Radiation, Pillnitzer Platz 3, D-01326 Dresden, Germany
Petr Štěpánek: Global Change Research Centre AS CR, Bělidla 986/4a, 603 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Petr Skalák: Global Change Research Centre AS CR, Bělidla 986/4a, 603 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Andreas Schmitt: C&E Consulting und Engineering GmbH, Jagdschänkenstr. 52, D-09117 Chemnitz, Germany
Petra Schneider: C&E Consulting und Engineering GmbH, Jagdschänkenstr. 52, D-09117 Chemnitz, Germany

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-30

Abstract: A first-time common cross-border assessment of observed climatic changes in the Saxon–Bohemian region was the aim of the German–Czech climate cooperation INTERKLIM. This paper focuses on the observed changes of temperature and precipitation averages and extremes within the period 1961–2010, investigating how variations of a range of climate indices were regionally shaped by changes in frequency and character of weather types. This investigation serves to enhance our understanding of the regional climate characteristics to develop transboundary adaptation strategies and focuses on the classification of the “Grosswetterlagen” using the parameters of air temperature and precipitation. Climate data were quality controlled and homogenized by a wide range of methods using the ProClimDB software with a subsequent comprehensive regional visualization based on Geographical Information Systems. Trends for the temperature averages showed increasing trend values mainly from January to August, especially for high temperature extremes. Precipitation trends displayed regionally varying signals, but a strong spatially uniform decrease from April to June (early growing season) and a distinctive increase from July to September (late growing season). Climatic changes were supported by frequency changes of weather types, e.g., the drying from April to June was related to a decrease/increase in patterns causing rather wet/dry conditions, while from July to September opposite trends were observed. Our results represent regional climatic changes in a complex topography and their dependency on variations in atmospheric circulation peculiarities.

Keywords: transboundary regional climate change; climate extreme indices; impact of weather types; Grosswetterlagen; ProClimDB; Germany; Czech Republic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:6:p:2049-:d:152931

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