Abstract
This paper assesses the extent to which temperature variability has increased in Austria since the late 19th century using a novel objective approach. The approach focuses on multi-day temperature episodes and isolates variability from changes in the long-term mean and seasonal variation. We define and compute three different indices of temperature variability, and find—based on 140 years of data—that temperature variability has evolved independently of mean temperature but with no long-term trend. Early 21st century’s relatively raised temperature variability level is known from late 19th century’s pre-greenhouse climate state.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Dr. Reinhard Böhm for sharing his climatological expertise, considerably enriching this article. Furthermore, we appreciate the constructive remarks of three anonymous reviewers, which substantially improved our work.
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J. Hiebl and M. Hofstätter, authors contributed equally to this work.
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Hiebl, J., Hofstätter, M. No increase in multi-day temperature variability in Austria following climate warming. Climatic Change 113, 733–750 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0389-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0389-x