Investigation and quality assessment of the Past Weather Code from the Integrated Surface Database

Pope, Richard, Willett, Kate M., Osborn, Timothy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8425-6799 and Thorne, P (2014) Investigation and quality assessment of the Past Weather Code from the Integrated Surface Database. Hadley Centre Technical Note . Met Office.

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Abstract

Quantitative SYNOP Code weather variables such as rainfall amount, although of high societal and environmental importance, are frequently subject to recording errors and inhomogeneities resulting in uncertain conclusions. Here we assess the viability of the more qualitative Past Weather Code (PWC) for its use in robust climate analysis in the belief that it is less prone to both random and systematic errors. The Past Weather Code data, from a selection of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Integrated Surface Database (ISD) (4731 sufficiently long stations), is quality assessed by searching for inhomogeneities in station PWC time series, removing the offending stations and averaging the remaining stations into a global gridded dataset. PWCs 6 (Rainfall), 7 (Snowfall) and 9 (Thunderstorms) are found to robustly exhibit seasonal features, e.g. the Indian monsoon and peak Northern Hemispheric winter snowfall. Precipitation responses to the North Atlantic Oscillation are also detected in winter PWC 6 data over Europe.

Item Type:	Book
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Climatic Research Unit
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	25 Jul 2015 04:07
Last Modified:	26 Jul 2023 09:33
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/53949
DOI:

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