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Projections of cold air outbreaks in CMIP6 earth system models

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Abstract

Historical and future simulated temperature data from five climate models in the Coupled Model Intercomparing Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) are used to understand how climate change might alter cold air outbreaks (CAOs) in the future. Three different shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs), SSP126, SSP245, and SSP585, are examined to identify potential fluctuations in CAOs across the globe between 2015 and 2054. Though CAOs may remain persistent or even increase in some regions through 2040, all five climate models show CAOs disappearing by 2054 based on current climate percentiles. Climate models were able to accurately simulate the spatial distribution and trends of historical CAOs, but there were large errors in the simulated interannual frequency of CAOs in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. Fluctuations in complex processes, such as Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, may be contributing to each model’s inability to simulate historical CAOs in these regions.

Plain language summary

Cold air outbreaks (CAOs) are extreme events that can have large, negative impacts on society. Because of these impacts, it is important to understand how climate change might alter CAOs in the future. Three future scenarios from five different climate models are examined to see where CAOs might change the most between 2015 and 2054. While changes in CAOs may be small for some regions through 2040, all the climate models show CAOs disappearing, relative to the historically defined criteria, by 2054. Where the climate models did a good job simulating historical CAOs, like in North America, we have confidence that future projections are relatively accurate. Where the models did poorly at simulating historical CAOs, like the North Atlantic and North Pacific, we have less confidence in future projections. More work needs to be done to understand the complex processes that lead to these errors.

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Data availability

All data used in this study is publicly available. The data that supports these findings are available at the Mendeley Data repository (Smith, Erik (2020), “Cold Air Outbreaks”, Mendeley Data, v1. https://doi.org/10.17632/mtwfvcvy5z.1). This repository contains a dataset with the dates of the individual CAOs as an .xlsx file. A larger dataset is also available as a .mat file and requires a MATLAB license to access. These datasets were created using ERA5 and CMIP6 climate model output near-surface temperature data. ERA5 near-surface temperature data is available from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) via the Copernicus Climate Change Service at https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/reanalysis-era5-single-levels. Climate model output from the CMIP6 archive is publicly available from the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF; https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/search/cmip6/). Climate model data was accessed via the Earth System Grid Federation (CMIP6-DKRZ Data Search | CMIP6-DKRZ | ESGF-CoG).

Materials availability

See “Data availability” statement

Code availability

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  1. Department of Geography, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Erik T. Smith & Scott C. Sheridan

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Erik Smith: Lead author and researcher

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Correspondence to Erik T. Smith.

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 2 Information for the CMIP6 models used in this study.
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Fig. 5
figure 5

Annual number of CAO days (y-axis) simulated by each climate model (solid lines), observed with ERA5 (red dashed line), and the climate model mean (black dashed line) from 1979 to 2015 (x-axis). Regions are denoted by the numbers in the top right corner. Lines are smoothed using a 5-year centered moving average.

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Fig. 6
figure 6

Simulated annual CAO days from 2015 to 2054 for three future scenarios: SSP126, SSP245, and SSP585 for each of the five climate models.

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Smith, E.T., Sheridan, S.C. Projections of cold air outbreaks in CMIP6 earth system models. Climatic Change 169, 14 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03259-x

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