Revisiting Swiss temperature trends 1959-2008

Temperature is a key variable for monitoring global climate change. Here we perform a trend analysis of Swiss temperatures from 1959 to 2008, using a new 2 × 2 km gridded data‐set based on carefully homogenised ground observations from MeteoSwiss. The aim of this study is twofold: first, to discuss...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of climatology 2012-02, Vol.32 (2), p.203-213
Main Authors: Ceppi, Paulo, Scherrer, Simon C., Fischer, Andreas M., Appenzeller, Christof
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alps
altitude dependence of temperature trends
atmospheric circulation patterns
climate change
Climatology. Bioclimatology. Climate change
Earth, ocean, space
ENSEMBLES
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
gridded temperature
Meteorology
snow-albedo feedback
Switzerland
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Summary:Temperature is a key variable for monitoring global climate change. Here we perform a trend analysis of Swiss temperatures from 1959 to 2008, using a new 2 × 2 km gridded data‐set based on carefully homogenised ground observations from MeteoSwiss. The aim of this study is twofold: first, to discuss the spatial and altitudinal temperature trend characteristics in detail, and second, to quantify the contribution of changes in atmospheric circulation and local effects to these trends. The seasonal trends are all positive and mostly significant with an annual average warming rate of 0.35 °C/decade (∼1.6 times the northern hemispheric warming rate), ranging from 0.17 in autumn to 0.48 °C/decade in summer. Altitude‐dependent trends are found in autumn and early winter where the trends are stronger at low altitudes (
ISSN:0899-8418
1097-0088
DOI:10.1002/joc.2260