Regional behavior of minimum temperatures in Switzerland for the period 1979-1993
Martin Beniston & Martine Rebetez
| Résumé |
A series of anomalously cold and warm winters which occurred in
Switzerland during the 15-year period from 1979 to 1993 has been
analyzed in detail in terms of temperature minima. The warm winters
between 1988-1992 were particularly marked in the Alps, where lack
of snow had severe consequences for the tourist-based economies of
mountain communities. The investigations presented here focus
primarily on minimum temperature records for up to 88
climatological observing sites distributed over Switzerland.
Analyses of the departures of temperature minima from the 15-year
means in warm and cold winters has shown that there is a very
significant altitudinal dependency of the anomalies except at low
elevations which are subject to fog or stratus conditions; the
stratus tends to decouple the underlying stations from processes
occurring at higher altitudes. It is also shown that there is a
switch in the gradient of the temperature anomaly with height from
cold to warm winters. For warm winters, the higher the elevation,
the stronger the positive anomaly; the reverse is true for cold
winters. The statistics for the 88 observational stations provide a
measure of the damping of the climate signal as an inverse function
of height. The altitudinal dependency of temperature departures
from the mean are the most important feature, followed by
latitudinal effects (north and south of the Alps); continentality
is not seen to be a major factor in determining the geographical
distribution of temperature anomalies at this scale. The present
investigation also emphasizes the fact that high elevation records
can more readily identify significant interannual climatic
fluctuations than at lower-elevation sites. This is also likely to
be the case for longer-term climate change, where possible
greenhouse-gas warming would presumably be detected with more
clarity at higher elevations. This type of study can help orientate
future high-resolution climate model studies of climate change and
in particular the assessment of model capability in reproducing a
range of possible temperature anomalies and their altitudinal
dependency. |
| Citation | Beniston, M., & Rebetez, M. (1996). Regional behavior of minimum temperatures in Switzerland for the period 1979-1993. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 53(4), 231-243. |
| Type | Article de périodique (Français) |
| Date de publication | 1996 |
| Nom du périodique | Theoretical and Applied Climatology |
| Volume | 53 |
| Numéro | 4 |
| Pages | 231-243 |