Skip to main content
Log in

Climate Shifts during the Last Century

  • Published:
Climatic Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Fluctuations of the land surface areas covered by Koeppen climates are analysed for the 1901 to 1995 period using trends and outliers as indicators of climate shift. Only the extreme climate zones of the global Tropics and of the Tundra (with the highly correlated northern hemisphere temperature) realise statistically significant shifts and outliers. There are nosignificant trends and outliers in the fluctuating ocean-atmosphere patterns (Pacific Decadal and North Atlantic Oscillations) and the highly correlated intermediate climate zones (dry, subtropical and boreal) of the surrounding continents.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Bailey, H. P.: 1962, 'Some Remarks on Koeppen's Definitions of Climatic Types and their Mapped Representations', Geog. Rev. 52, 444–447.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corti, S., Molteni, F., and Palmer, T. N.: 1999, 'Signature of Recent Climate Change in Frequencies of Natural Atmospheric Circulation Regimes', Nature 398, 799–802.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher, R. J.: 1969, 'A Proposed Modification of Koeppen to Incorporate Seasonal Precipitation', J. Geog. 68, 347–350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham, N. E.: 1994, 'Decadal-Scale Climate Variability in the Tropical and North Pacific during the 1970s and 1980s: Observations and Model Results', Clim. Dyn. 10, 135–162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guetter, P. J. and Kutzbach, J. E.: 1990, 'A Modified Koeppen Classification Applied to Model Simulations of Glacial and Interglacial Climates', Clim. Change 16, 193–215.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hare, S.: 2000, www.iphc.washington.edu/staff/hare/html/decadal/post1977/ pdo1.html

  • Hougthon, J.: 1994, Global Warming – The Complete Briefing, Lion Publishing, Oxford, p. 230.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurrell, J. W.: 1995, 'Decadal Trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation Regional Temperatures and Precipitation', Science 269, 676–679.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurrell, J. W.: 1999, http://tao.atmos.washington.edu/data_sets/nao/index.html

  • Hurrell, J. W. and van Loon, H.: 1997, 'Decadal Variations in Climate Associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation', Clim. Change 36, 301–326.

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC: 1996a, Climate Change 1995 – Impacts, Adaptations and Mitigation of Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 179.

    Google Scholar 

  • IPCC: 1996b, Climate Change 1995 – The Science of Climate Change; Summary for Policymakers, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Köppen, W.: 1936, Das geographische System der Klimate – Handbuch der Klimatologie, Vol. 1, Part C, Gebr. Bornträger Verl., Berlin, p. 388.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann, H. B.: 1945, 'Non-Parametric Test against Trend', Econometrica 13, 245–259.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann, H. B. and Whitney, D. R.: 1947, 'On a Test of whether One of Two Random Variables Is Stochastically Larger than Other', Ann. Math. Statist. 18, 52–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Müller, P. H., Neumann, P., and Storm, R.: 1973, Tafeln der mathematischen Statistik, VEB Fachbuchverlag, Leipzig, p. 275.

    Google Scholar 

  • New, M. and Hulme, M.: 1997, 'Development of an Observed Monthly Surface Climate Dataset over Global Land Areas for 1901–1995', in Physics of Climate Conference, Royal Meteorological Society, London, 29–30 October 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettitt, A. N.: 1979, 'A Non-Parametric Approach to the Change-Point Problem', Appl. Statistics 28, 126–135.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudloff, W.: 1981, 'Weltklimate', Naturwiss. Rdsch. 34, 443–450.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sneyers, R.: 1975, Sur l'analyse statistique des séries d'observation, WMO, Techn. Note, 143, Geneve, pp. 191–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taubenheim, J.: 1969, Statistische Auswertung geophysikalischer und meteorologischer Daten, Akad. Verl.-Ges. Geest & Portig, Leipzig, p. 386.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trenberth, K. E. and Hurrell, J. W.: 1994, 'Decadal Atmosphere-Ocean Variations in the Pacific', Clim. Dyn. 9, 303–319.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trewartha, G. T.: 1980, An Introduction to Climate, 5th edn., McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, London, p. 437.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fraedrich, K., Gerstengarbe, FW. & Werner, P.C. Climate Shifts during the Last Century. Climatic Change 50, 405–417 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010699428863

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010699428863

Keywords

Navigation