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Summer temperature extremes in northeastern Spain: spatial regionalization and links to atmospheric circulation (1960–2006)

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Abstract

A procedure for classifying daily summer temperature extremes in northeastern Spain into homogenous regions has been presented and evaluated. This procedure employed daily temperature series from a dense network of 128 weather stations spanning the period from 1960 to 2006. Characteristics of temperature extremes included temperature frequency (e.g., warm days), intensity (e.g., warmest day), and duration (e.g., maximum length of hot spell). Following the results of the principal components analysis and Ward's method of clustering, the study area was divided into four homogenous sub-regions in terms of both the geographic and climatic meanings: the Mediterranean region, the mainland and the Cantabrian region, the moderately elevated areas westward and southward, and the mountainous region. Based on an internal cluster validation measure (Silhouette width), the quality of clustering was evaluated and ensured. The temporal evolution of the long-term (1960–2006) temperature extremes clearly showed a different behavior amongst these sub-regions. The Mediterranean and the highly elevated regions revealed the strongest signals in both daytime and nighttime extremes. For mainland areas, considerable differences in the behavior of the daytime and nighttime temperature extremes were evident. The influence of atmospheric circulation on spatial and temporal variability of temperature extremes was also explored. The variability of summer temperature extremes in NE Spain appears to be mainly driven by the Scandinavian (SCA), the Western Mediterranean Oscillation (WeMO), and the East Atlantic (EA) patterns, with a tendency toward increasing during the positive (negative) phases of the EA (WeMO and SCA) circulation modes. In such a region with complex geography and climate, regionalization of summer temperature extremes can be advantageous for extracting finer-scale information, which may prove useful for the vulnerability assessments and the development of local adaptation strategies in areas such as health, ecosystems and agriculture.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Spanish Meteorological State Agency for providing the temperature database used in this study. This work has been supported by the research projects CGL2008-01189/BTE, CGL2011-27574-CO2-02, and CGL2011-27536 financed by the Spanish Commission of Science and Technology and FEDER, EUROGEOSS (FP7-ENV-2008-1-226487), and ACQWA (FP7-ENV-2007-1-212250) financed by the VII Framework Programme of the European Commission “Efecto de los escenarios de cambio climático sobre la hidrología superficial y la gestión de embalses del Pirineo Aragonés” financed by “Obra Social La Caixa” and the Aragón Government and Influencia del cambio climático en el turismo de nieve, CTTP01/10, financed by the Comisión de Trabajo de los Pirineos.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia-CSIC, Campus de Aula Dei, P.O. Box 13034, Zaragoza, 50059, Spain

    Ahmed El Kenawy, Juan I. López-Moreno & Sergio M. Vicente-Serrano

  2. Department of Geography, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt

    Ahmed El Kenawy

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  1. Ahmed El Kenawy
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Correspondence to Ahmed El Kenawy.

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El Kenawy, A., López-Moreno, J.I. & Vicente-Serrano, S.M. Summer temperature extremes in northeastern Spain: spatial regionalization and links to atmospheric circulation (1960–2006). Theor Appl Climatol 113, 387–405 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-012-0797-5

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