E. Zorita et al., How unusual is the recent series of warm years?

Citation: Zorita, E., T. F. Stocker, and H. von Storch (2008), How unusual is the recent series of warm years?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L24706, doi:10.1029/2008GL036228.

How unusual is the recent series of warm years?

How unusual is the recent series of warm years?

E. Zorita (Institute for Coastal Research, GKSS Research Centre, Geesthacht, Germany), T. F. Stocker (Physics Institute and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland) and H. von Storch (Institute for Coastal Research, GKSS Research Centre, Geesthacht, Germany)

Previous statistical detection methods based partially on climate model simulations indicate that, globally, the observed warming lies very probably outside the natural variations. We use a more simple approach to assess recent warming at different spatial scales without making explicit use of climate simulations. It considers the likelihood that the observed recent clustering of warm record-breaking mean temperatures at global, regional and local scales may occur by chance in a stationary climate. Under two statistical null-hypotheses, autoregressive and long-memory, this probability turns to be very low: for the global records lower than p = 0.001, and even lower for some regional records. The picture for the individual long station records is not as clear, as the number of recent record years is not as large as for the spatially averaged temperatures.

(Received 5 October 2008, accepted 18 November 2008, published 30 December 2008.)

Link to abstract: http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2008/2008GL036228.shtml