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Abstract Increased temperature will result in longer, more frequent, and more intense heat waves. Changes in temperature variability have been deemed necessary to account for future heat wave characteristics. However, this has been quantified only in Europe and North America, while the rest of the globe remains unexplored. Using late century global climate projections, we show that annual mean temperature increases is the key factor defining heat wave changes in most regions. We find that commonly studied areas are an exception rather than the standard and the mean climate change signal generally outweighs any influence from variability changes. More importantly, differences in warming across seasons are responsible for most of the heat wave changes and their consideration relegates the contribution of variability to a marginal role. This reveals that accurately capturing mean seasonal changes is crucial to estimate future heat waves and reframes our interpretation of future temperature extremes. , Key Points The influence of projected temperature variability changes on future heat waves varies across the globe Future heat waves are primarily controlled by annual mean changes, except in Europe and North America Mean seasonal warming is responsible for over 95% of projected heat wave changes in most region

High-resolution numerical weather prediction experiments using the Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model at a 250-m horizontal resolution are used to investigate the effect of the urban land-use on 2-m surface air temperature, thermal comfort, and rainfall over the Montreal (Canada) area. We focus on two different events of high temperatures lasting 2–3 days followed by intense rainfall: one is a large-scale synoptic system that crosses Montreal at night and the other is an afternoon squall line. Our model shows an overall good performance in adequately capturing the surface air temperature, dew-point temperature and rainfall during the events, although the precipitation pattern seems to be slightly blocked upwind of the city. Sensitivity experiments with different land use scenarios were conducted. Replacing all urban surfaces by low vegetation showed an increase of human comfort, lowering the heat index during the night between 2° and 6°C. Increasing the albedo of urban surfaces led to an improvement of comfort of up to 1°C during daytime, whereas adding street-level low vegetation had an improvement of comfort throughout the day of up to 0.5°C in the downtown area. With respect to precipitation, significant differences are only seen for the squall line event, for which removing the city modifies the precipitation pattern. For the large-scale synoptic system, the presence of the city does not seem to impact precipitation. These findings offer insight on the effects of urban morphology on the near-surface atmospheric conditions.

Abstract The Maritime Continent is one of the most challenging regions for atmospheric models. Processes that modulate deep convection are poorly represented in models, which affects their ability to simulate precipitation features accurately. Thus, future projections of precipitation over the region are prone to large uncertainties. One of the key players in modeling tropical precipitation is the convective representation, and hence convection-permitting experiments have contributed to improve aspects of precipitation in models. This improvement creates opportunities to explore the physical processes that govern rainfall in the Maritime Continent, as well as their role in a warming climate. Here, we examine the response to climate change of models with explicit and parameterized convection and how that reflects in precipitation changes. We focus on the intensification of spatial contrasts as precursors of changes in mean and extreme precipitation in the tropical archipelago. Our results show that the broad picture is similar in both model setups, where islands will undergo an increase in mean and extreme precipitation in a warmer climate and the ocean will see less rain. However, the magnitude and spatial structure of such changes, as well as the projection of rainfall percentiles, are different across model experiments. We suggest that while the primary effect of climate change is thermodynamical and it is similarly reproduced by both model configurations, dynamical effects are represented quite differently in explicit and parameterized convection experiments. In this study, we link such differences to horizontal and vertical spatial contrasts and how convective representations translate them into precipitation changes.

Abstract The climate of the eastern seaboard of Australia is strongly influenced by the passage of low pressure systems over the adjacent Tasman Sea due to their associated precipitation and their potential to develop into extreme weather events. The aim of this study is to quantify differences in the climatology of east coast lows derived from the use of six global reanalyses. The methodology is explicitly designed to identify differences between reanalyses arising from differences in their horizontal resolution and their structure (type of forecast model, assimilation scheme, and the kind and number of observations assimilated). As a basis for comparison, reanalysis climatologies are compared with an observation-based climatology. Results show that reanalyses, specially high-resolution products, lead to very similar climatologies of the frequency, intensity, duration, and size of east coast lows when using spatially smoothed (about 300-km horizontal grid meshes) mean sea level pressure fields as input data. Moreover, at these coarse horizontal scales, monthly, interannual, and spatial variabilities appear to be very similar across the various reanalyses with a generally stronger agreement between winter events compared with summer ones. Results also show that, when looking at cyclones using reanalysis data at their native resolution (approaching 50-km grid spacing for the most recent products), uncertainties related to the frequency, intensity, and size of lows are very large and it is not clear which reanalysis, if any, gives a better description of cyclones. Further work is needed in order to evaluate the usefulness of the finescale information in modern reanalyses and to better understand the sources of their differences.

Abstract This study evaluates the added value in the representation of surface climate variables from an ensemble of regional climate model (RCM) simulations by comparing the relative skill of the RCM simulations and their driving data over a wide range of RCM experimental setups and climate statistics. The methodology is specifically designed to compare results across different variables and metrics, and it incorporates a rigorous approach to separate the added value occurring at different spatial scales. Results show that the RCMs' added value strongly depends on the type of driving data, the climate variable, and the region of interest but depends rather weakly on the choice of the statistical measure, the season, and the RCM physical configuration. Decomposing climate statistics according to different spatial scales shows that improvements are coming from the small scales when considering the representation of spatial patterns, but from the large‐scale contribution in the case of absolute values. Our results also show that a large part of the added value can be attained using some simple postprocessing methods. , Key Points A rigorous methodology that allows evaluating the overall benefits of high‐resolution simulations The most reliable source of added value is the better representation of the spatial variability Substantial added value can also be attained using simple postprocessing methods

Abstract Approximately 10 years ago, convection‐permitting regional climate models (CPRCMs) emerged as a promising computationally affordable tool to produce fine resolution (1–4 km) decadal‐long climate simulations with explicitly resolved deep convection. This explicit representation is expected to reduce climate projection uncertainty related to deep convection parameterizations found in most climate models. A recent surge in CPRCM decadal simulations over larger domains, sometimes covering continents, has led to important insights into CPRCM advantages and limitations. Furthermore, new observational gridded datasets with fine spatial and temporal (~1 km; ~1 h) resolutions have leveraged additional knowledge through evaluations of the added value of CPRCMs. With an improved coordination in the frame of ongoing international initiatives, the production of ensembles of CPRCM simulations is expected to provide more robust climate projections and a better identification of their associated uncertainties. This review paper presents an overview of the methodology to produce CPRCM simulations and the latest research on the related added value in current and future climates. Impact studies that are already taking advantage of these new CPRCM simulations are highlighted. This review paper ends by proposing next steps that could be accomplished to continue exploiting the full potential of CPRCMs. This article is categorized under: Climate Models and Modeling > Earth System Models

Abstract Like many western boundary currents, the East Australian Current (EAC) extension is projected to get stronger and warmer in the future. The CMIP5 multimodel mean (MMM) projection suggests up to 5°C of warming under an RCP85 scenario by 2100. Previous studies employed Sverdrup balance to associate a trend in basin wide zonally integrated wind stress curl (resulting from the multidecadal poleward intensification in the westerly winds over the Southern Ocean) with enhanced transport in the EAC extension. Possible regional drivers are yet to be considered. Here we introduce the NEMO‐OASIS‐WRF coupled regional climate model as a framework to improve our understanding of CMIP5 projections. We analyze a hierarchy of simulations in which the regional atmosphere and ocean circulations are allowed to freely evolve subject to boundary conditions that represent present‐day and CMIP5 RCP8.5 climate change anomalies. Evaluation of the historical simulation shows an EAC extension that is stronger than similar ocean‐only models and observations. This bias is not explained by a linear response to differences in wind stress. The climate change simulations show that regional atmospheric CMIP5 MMM anomalies drive 73% of the projected 12 Sv increase in EAC extension transport whereas the remote ocean boundary conditions and regional radiative forcing (greenhouse gases within the domain) play a smaller role. The importance of regional changes in wind stress curl in driving the enhanced EAC extension is consistent with linear theory where the NEMO‐OASIS‐WRF response is closer to linear transport estimates compared to the CMIP5 MMM. , Plain Language Summary In recent decades, enhanced warming, severe marine heatwaves, and increased transport by the East Australian Current have led to the invasion of nonnative species and the destruction of kelp forests east of Tasmania. The East Australian Current extension is projected to get stronger and warmer in the future. We seek to better understand coupled climate model projections for the Tasman Sea. This is difficult because there is large model diversity and considerable uncertainty as to how and where future changes will occur. In addition, little is known about the possible importance of regional versus large‐scale changes in surface time‐mean winds in driving future circulation changes. Here we use a single limited‐domain ocean‐atmosphere coupled model that takes the average model projections as its inputs and finds that changes in the regional wind stress are most important for the enhanced projected East Australian Current extension. We also find that these projected changes are consistent with simple linear theory and the simulated regional changes in wind stress. , Key Points NEMO‐OASIS‐WRF coupled regional climate model is evaluated and introduced as a new tool for analyzing Tasman Sea climate projections NEMO‐OASIS‐WRF projections suggest that local atmospheric changes drive 73% of the projected 12 Sv increase in EAC extension transport The importance of regional changes in wind stress curl driving the enhanced EAC extension is consistent with linear theory