Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Geography / John A. Harrington Jr / The climate of the Middle East is warming and extreme hot temperature events are becoming more common, as observed by the significant upward trends in mean and extreme temperatures during the last few decades. Climate modeling studies suggest that the frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme temperature events are expected to increase as the global and local climate continues to warm. Existing literature about heat waves (HWs) in Saudi Arabia provides information about HW duration using a single index, without considering the observed effects of climate change and the subtropical arid climate. With that in mind, this dissertation provides a series of three stand-alone papers evaluating temporal, geographic, and atmospheric aspects of the character of warm season (May-September) HWs in Saudi Arabia for 1985 to 2014. Chapter 2 examines the temporal behavior(s) of the frequency, duration, and intensity of HWs under the observed recent climate change. Several issues are addressed including the identification of some improved methodological practices for HW indices. A time-sensitive approach to define and detect HWs is proposed and assessed. HW events and their duration are considered as count data; thus, different Poisson models were used for trend detection. Chapter 3 addresses the spatio-temporal patterns of the frequency and intensity of hot days and nights, and HWs. The chapter reemphasizes the importance of considering the on-goings effects of climate warming and applies a novel time-series clustering approach to recognize hot temperature event behavior through time and space. Chapter 4 explores the atmospheric circulation conditions that are associated with warm season HW event occurrence and how different HWs aspects are related to different circulation types. Further, possible teleconnections between HWs and sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies of nearby large bodies are examined. Results from Chapters 2 and 3 detected systematic upward trends in maximum and minimum temperatures at most of the 25 stations, suggesting an on-going change in the climatology of the upper-tail of the frequency distribution. The analysis demonstrated the value of using a time-sensitive approach in studying extreme thermal events. Different patterns were observed over time and space not only across stations but also among extreme temperature events (i.e., hot days and nights, and HWs). The overall results suggest that not only local and regional factors, such as elevation, latitude, land cover, atmospheric humidity, and distance from a large body of water, but also large-scale factors such as atmospheric circulation patterns are responsible for the observed temporal and spatial patterns. Chapter 4 confirmed that as the Indian Summer Monsoon Trough and the Arabian heat low were key atmospheric features related to HW days. SST anomalies seemed to be a more important factor for HWs intensity. Extreme thermal events in Saudi Arabia tended to occur during regional warming due to atmospheric circulation conditions and SSTs teleconnections. This study documents the value of a time-sensitive approach and should initiate further research as some of temporal and spatial variabilities were not fully explained

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

A large epizootic of the vector-borne disease bluetongue occurred in northern Europe from 2006-2009, costing the economies of the infected countries several hundreds of millions of euros. During this time, the United Kingdom (UK) was exposed to the risk of bluetongue by windborne incursions of infected Culicoides biting midges from the northern coast of mainland Europe. The first outbreaks which occurred in the UK in 2007 were attributed to this cause. Although bluetongue virus (BTV) no longer appears to be circulating in northern Europe, it is widely suggested that it and other midge-borne diseases may emerge again in the future, particularly under a changing climate. Spread of BTV is strongly influenced by the weather and climate however limited use has been made of meteorologically based models to generate predictions of its spread to the UK. The extent to which windborne BTV spread can be modelled at timescales from days to decades ahead, to inform tactical and strategic decisions taken to limit its transmission, is therefore examined here. An early warning system has been developed to predict possible incursion events on a daily timescale, based on an atmospheric dispersion model adapted to incorporate flight characteristics of the Culicoides vectors. The system’s warning of the first UK outbreak in September 2007 was found to be greatly beneficial to the UK livestock industry. The dispersion model is also shown to be a useful post-outbreak epidemiological analysis tool. A novel approach has been developed to predict BTV spread into the UK on climate-change timescales as dispersion modelling is not practical over extended periods of time. Using a combination of principal component and cluster analyses the synoptic scale atmospheric circulations which control when local weather conditions are suitable for midge incursions were determined. Changes in the frequency and timing of these large scale circulations over the period 2000 to 2050 were then examined using an ensemble of regional climate model simulations. The results suggest areas of UK under the influence of easterly winds may face a slight increase in risk and the length of the season where temperatures are suitable for BTV replication is likely to increase by around 20 days by 2050. However a high level of uncertainty is associated with these predictions so a flexible decision making approach should be adopted to accommodate better information as it becomes available in the future.

The Georgia General Assembly, like many states, has enacted pre-defined, comprehensive, drought-mitigation apparatus, but they need rainfall outlooks. Global circulation models (GCMs) provide rainfall outlooks, but they are too spatially course for jurisdictional impact assessment. To wed these efforts, spatially averaged, time-smoothed, daily precipitation observations from the National Weather Service cooperative network are fitted to eight points of 700 mbar atmospheric data from the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis Project for climate downscaling and drought prediction in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river basin. The domain is regionalized with a factor analysis to create specialized models. All models complied well with mathematical assumptions, though the residuals were somewhat skewed and flattened. All models had an R-squared > 0.2. The models revealed map points to the south to be especially influential. A leave-one-out cross-validation showed the models to be unbiased with a percent error of < 20%. Atmospheric parameters are estimated for 2008–2011 with GCMs and empirical extrapolations. The transfer function was invoked on both these data sets for drought predictions. All models and data indicate drought especially for 2010 and especially in the south.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, 1982. / Microfiche copy available in Archives and Science. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 218-225. / by Randall M. Dole. / Ph.D.

The reliance on freshwater released by mountain glaciers and ice caps demands that the effects of climate change on these thermally-sensitive systems are evaluated thoroughly. Coupling climate variability to processes of mass and energy exchange at the glacier scale is challenged, however, by a lack of climate data at an appropriately fine spatial resolution. The thesis addresses this challenge through attempting to reconcile this scale mismatch: glacier boundary-layer observations of meteorology and ablation at Vestari Hagafellsjökull, Iceland, and Storglaciären, Sweden, are related to synoptic-scale meteorological variability recorded in gridded, reanalysis data. Specific attention is directed toward synoptic controls on: i) near-surface air temperature lapse rates; ii) stationarity of temperature-index melt model parameters; and iii) glacier-surface ablation. A synoptic weather-typing procedure, which groups days of similar reanalysis meteorology into weather categories , forms the basis of the analytical approach adopted to achieve these aims. Lapse rates at Vestari Hagafellsjökull were found to be shallowest during weather categories characterised by warm, cloud-free weather that encouraged katabatic drainage; steep lapse rates were encountered in weather categories associated with strong synoptic winds. Quantitatively, 26% to 38% of the daily lapse-rate variability could be explained by weather-category and regression-based models utilizing the reanalysis data: a level of skill sufficient to effect appreciable improvements in the accuracy of air temperatures extrapolated vertically over Vestari Hagafellsjökull. Weather categories also highlighted the dynamic nature of the temperature-ablation relationship. Notably, the sensitivity of ablation to changes in air temperature was observed to be non-stationary between weather categories, highlighting vulnerabilities of temperature-index models. An innovative solution to this limitation is suggested: the relationship between temperature and ablation can be varied as a function of weather-category membership. This flexibility leads to an overall improvement in the simulation of daily ablation compared to traditional temperature-index formulations (up to a 14% improvement in the amount of variance explained), without the need for additional meteorological data recorded in-situ. It is concluded that weather categories are highly appropriate for evaluating synoptic controls on glacier meteorology and surface energetics; significant improvements in the parameterization of boundary-layer meteorology and ablation rates are realised through their application.

The atmospheric drivers of winter and summer surface climate in western Canada are evaluated using a synoptic climatological approach. Winter snow accumulation provides the largest contribution to annual streamflow of the north-flowing Mackenzie and east-flowing Saskatchewan Rivers, while summer water availability is primarily a product of basin-wide precipitation and evapotranspiration. A catalogue of dominant synoptic types is produced for winter (Nov-Apr) and summer (May-Oct) using the method of Self-Organizing Maps. Water availability, quantified through high-resolution gridded temperature and precipitation data, associated with these synoptic types is then determined. The frequency of dominant types during positive/negative phases of the Southern Oscillation Index, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and Arctic Oscillation reveal the atmospheric processes through which these teleconnections influence surface climate. Results from the winter analysis are more coherent than summer, with strong relationships found between synoptic types, teleconnections, and surface climate. Although not as strong, links between summer synoptic types and water availability also exist. Additionally, time-series analysis of synoptic type frequencies indicates a trend toward circulation patterns that produce warmer, drier winters as well as an earlier onset and extension of the summer season. This study increases our understanding of the atmospheric processes controlling the distribution of water resources in western Canada. / Graduate / 0388 / 0725 / 0368 / bwnewton@uvic.ca

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / An investigation of the atmospheric environments prone to severe convective weather is conducted for the subtropics of South America, east of the Andes Mountain Range. Upper air soundings valid at 00Z and 12Z for six sounding sites in subtropical South America (namely, Porto Alegre/BRA, Florianópolis/BRA, Curitiba/BRA, Foz do Iguaçu/BRA, Resistência/ARG e Buenos Aires/ARG) are employed to generate a short 12-yr climatology (from January 1998 to December 2009) of some of the main necessary ingredients for severe thunderstorm development: moisture availability, conditional instability, and vertical wind shear (VWS). The goal of the climatology is to document the typical magnitudes and seasonal variability of those ingredients with the aid of convective parameters. Threshold magnitudes for such parameters were objectively determined (via quantile analysis) and tested as cut-off criteria utilized to discriminate the severe weather environments. To that end, classic North-American threshold values extracted from the literature were also tested and the results compared vis-à-vis the South-American counterparts. Distinct combinations of such thresholds were employed to select atmospheric profiles theoretically conducive to severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. Atmospheric profiles obtained from the NCEP-NCAR Reanalysis data valid at 18Z were also used. The time and space distribution of the selected severe weather profiles were examined, emphasizing the seasonal variation and geographic distribution. From these sampled profiles, composite analysis were built for and Principal Component Analysis were applied to relevant meteorological variables at distinct vertical levels in order to search for the associated synoptic-scale patterns. The climatology succesfully reproduced the expected seasonal behavior of parameters that are indicative of conditional instability and VWS. Compared to the North-American climatology, the magnitudes found for the 700-500hPa lapse rates, 0-6km bulk shear and height of the LCL were lower in South America. The seasonal variability and space distribution of the severe weather profiles suggest that there exists an equatorward [poleward] displacement of the severe weather activity as winter [summer] approaches. The synoptic pattterns associated with the severe weather environments is different from those traditionally recognized for North America, particularly at the surface. / Neste trabalho é realizada uma investigação dos ambientes favoráveis ao desenvolvimento de convecção severa nos subtrópicos da América do Sul (AS) à leste dos Andes. Sondagens de ar superior das 00Z e 12Z de seis estações distribuídas na região subtropical da AS (quais sejam: Porto Alegre/BRA, Florianópolis/BRA, Curitiba/BRA, Foz do Iguaçu/BRA, Resistência/ARG e Buenos Aires/ARG), foram utilizadas para gerar uma pequena climatologia (12 anos; de janeiro de 1998 a dezembro de 2009) de alguns dos principais ingredientes necessários para o desenvolvimento de convecção severa: oferta de umidade, instabilidade condicional termodinâmica e cisalhamento vertical do vento (CVV). A climatologia visou documentar as magnitudes típicas e a variação sazonal destes parâmetros para a região de interesse. Valores significativos dos parâmetros foram objetivamente identificados via análise de quantis e testados como limiares combinados para salientar ambientes favoráveis ao desenvolvimento de tempestades severas. Limiares para a América do Norte documentados na literatura também foram testados para este fim e confrontados com os respectivos valores da amostragem sul-americana. Diferentes combinações destes limiares foram empregadas para se extrair os perfis atmosféricos considerados teoricamente favoráveis a tempestades severas e tornados. Perfis de tempo severo também foram extraídos dos dados da Reanálise do NCEP-NCAR válidos às 18Z. Foi examinada a distribuição temporal e espacial destes ambientes de tempo severo explorando sua sazonalidade e distribuição geográfica. Partindo destes perfis, foram analisados os padrões sinóticos predominantes na região através da composição média e Análise de Componentes Principais para as variáveis meteorológicas mais relevantes em diferentes níveis verticais. A climatologia reproduziu bem o comportamento sazonal esperado dos parâmetros de instabilidade termodinâmica e CVV. Em comparação com a climatologia da América do Norte encontrou-se para a América do Sul valores mais baixos de lapse rates na média troposfera, CVV na camada entre 0-6km, e altura do NCL. A distribuição sazonal e espacial dos perfis de tempo severo sugere uma migração geográfica das condições de tempo severo das latitudes mais baixas [altas] para as latitudes mais altas [baixas] à medida que nos aproximamos dos meses de verão [inverno]. O padrão sinótico de tempo severo na América do Sul é diferente daquele tradicionalmente documentado para a América do Norte, especialmente em superfície.