The seasonal characteristics of English Channel storminess have changed since the 19th Century

Cornes, Richard C. and Jones, Philip D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5032-5493 (2024) The seasonal characteristics of English Channel storminess have changed since the 19th Century. Communications Earth & Environment, 5. ISSN 2662-4435

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Abstract

Information from a variety of sources has suggested that increased storminess was experienced across the British Isles in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century. However, it is not clear how stormy that period was relative to current conditions. Using newly recovered barometric pressure data that extend back to 1748 we have constructed a measure of geostrophic wind speed for the English Channel region using a pressure-triangle approach. We show that the 1790−1820s was a period of increased storminess across the region. This storminess extended throughout the year, which is different to comparable increases observed since the 1990s, which were confined to the winter season. While a strengthened North Atlantic jet stream is implicated in both periods, in the earlier period it is likely that the storm track shifted slightly to a more southerly location. We discuss the potential forcing mechanisms responsible for the changes in storminess over this multi-century timeframe.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data availability: Data for the three stations can be accessed from the following Figshare Repository: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24242302.v1. Additional data can be accessed from https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24938640. Code availability: The code used in this paper can be accessed from https://github.com/rcornes/LPD_SLP. Funding information: RC was funded by NERC under the CLASS programme (NE/R015953/1).
Faculty \ School:	University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Climatic Research Unit Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	03 Apr 2024 11:32
Last Modified:	09 Apr 2024 12:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/94796
DOI:	10.1038/s43247-024-01319-5

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