European heatwave in July 2006: Observations and modeling showing how local processes amplify conducive large-scale conditions
Abstract
July 2006 was particularly warm in Europe. The consistency of this kind of anomaly with large-scale circulation conditions or local processes is a key issue for regional climate evolution. Using observations from space and ground-based observatory, together with simulations from regional model, shows that two concomitant but disconnected drivers explain this heatwave. The first driver corresponds to large-scale conditions (specific atmospheric condition with advection of continental air favoring clear sky). The second condition relates to local processes (dry soil, amplifying surface temperature in heatwave for first 5 days, and making this event warm enough to induce a monthly mean anomaly). This large-scale event is studied at a site in northern France, where comprehensive observation data carefully reanalyzed are available. A regional model is able to produce the amplitude of the event, for both temperature and cloud large-scale anomalies. Coupling model and observations allow discriminating the surface contribution to the temperature anomaly.
- Publication:
-
Geophysical Research Letters
- Pub Date:
- August 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1002/2014GL060205
- Bibcode:
- 2014GeoRL..41.5644C
- Keywords:
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- heatwave;
- supersites;
- analogs of circulation;
- mesoscale model