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Identifying the Causes of
Weather and Climate Events to
Improve Predictions
Randall Dole
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
Physical Sciences Division
With M. Hoerling, J. Perlwitz, J. Eisched, X-W. Quan, T.
Zhang, P. Pegion, A. Kumar, J. Nielsen-Gammon, M. Chen
NOAA 37th Annual Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop
October 22, 2012
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Minutes
Hours
Days
1 Week
2 Week
Months
Seasons
Years
Warnings & Alert
Coordination
Watches
Forecasts
Threats
Assessments
Actions and Decisions
Decades
Decadal
Predictions
Climate
Outlooks
Projections
Century
Warning &
Response Preparedness Planning Adaptation Mitigation
Information needs across time scales
Addressing needs to inform policy, planning and decision-making actions across time
scales requires understanding how the occurrences of weather and climate-related
events are conditioned by climate variations and change.
Events Climate Variations and Change
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Framing questions
Most event attribution studies have been framed around one of two
questions:
The first question addresses needs of the IPCC and for informing long-term
policy discussions, as well as other applications where attribution of human
influence is the primary focus.
3
What are the attributable human influences for an observed
weather or climate event at some level of confidence?
What are the most likely causes for an observed weather or
climate event at some level of confidence?
The second question considers roles of both human and natural factors in the
event, including potentially predictable natural variations. The latter can be
crucial for scientific understanding as well as for informing decisions,
especially on shorter (I-SI) time scales.
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Two Approaches to Event Attribution:
A Medical Analogy
So, Doc, What’s the cause?
I’ll get
back to
you after
we’ve run
some
tests.
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• An epidemiological approach (population)
Obtain a statistical estimate of how a given factor, e.g., human-caused climate
change, changes the probability (alters the relative risk) of an event defined by
some threshold.
• A diagnostic approach (individual)
Assess roles of potential contributing factors to an observed event through
observational and diagnostic analysis and hypothesis testing (model
experiments). A major goal is to improve predictive understanding.
5 July 2011 T’sfc
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A relevant proverb when beginning event
attribution
It is very difficult to find a black cat in a dark room. Especially when there is no cat.
In attribution there is a fundamental need to consider alternative hypotheses.
October 22, 2012
?
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Anatomy of an Extreme Event
M. Hoerling, A. Kumar, R. Dole, J. Nielsen-Gammon, J. Eischeid, J. Perlwitz, X-W.
Quan, T. Zhang, P. Pegion and M. Chen
(J. Climate, in press)
October 22, 2012 7
The 2010-2011 Texas drought and 2011 summer heat wave
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What are possible contributing factors
to the Texas drought and heat wave?
• Anthropogenic forcing associated with increasing GHGs (examine evidence for trends, model experiments)
• Forcing associated with anomalous boundary conditions in SSTs, sea ice, soil moisture … (consider observed conditions, historical and physical relationships, model experiments)
• Unforced internal variations (may include potentially predictable modes of variability)
• Others (land use and land cover changes, etc.)
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The 2010-11 Texas Drought:
Is there evidence for a long-term drying trend?
Source: PRISM Data
9
No.
• Increase in Texas ~ 20%
• Would not have provided a basis
for anticipating drought
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Or an emerging drought in the past several years?
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
0 12 24 36 48 60 72
Acc
um
ula
ted
Pre
cip
itati
on
(in
ch
es
)
Months of Accumulation
Drought Fingerprint, Texas
2011
1918
1956
Ending date (t = 0) - September 30 (Water Year)
10 • Drought began in Fall 2010
• Severe short-term (~1 year) drought
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How about for summer temperatures?
11 Observational estimate of warming trend depends on time interval, ranging from ~
0.6o C for 1981-2010 to ~ 0o C for periods starting prior to ~1950.
2011 JJA Texas T’ = 2.9o C
Previous record T’ = 1.6o C
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Was Human-Caused Climate Change Necessary to
Produce Such an Intense Heat Wave?
12 Distribution of warmest Texas summers occurring in 115 non-overlapping
100-year periods from CMIP5 pre-industrial simulations
Prior
observational
record 2011
Model results suggest that the answer is No.
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Were observed ocean conditions favorable for drought?
May 29, 2012 13
Yes. Preceding moderate La Niña event, decays by summer
Observed prior relationship between La Niña-Texas droughts
Known physical basis for this relationship.
Preceding Oct 2010-
May 2011
Concurrent Summer 2011
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What are observed relationships between Summer
Precipitation and Temperature?
October 22, 2012 14
r = - 0.74
Strong Relationship: “Dry-Warm”.
2011
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What Were Conditions Associated with Hot Texas
Summers in Pre-industrial (Natural Variability) Runs?
May 29, 2012 15
CCSM 1500-year pre-industrial run composites for “1-in-100 year” warm
summers, which show preceding La Niña-like conditions and very dry
conditions similar to observed relationships.
Concurrent Summer 2011
Preceding Oct 2010-
May 2011
SSTs Pcpn
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How might anthropogenic forcing have affected 2011
Summer Precipitation and Temperatures? (CMIP5)
October 22, 2012 16
Precipitation Temperatures
• No significant change in precipitation (no evidence for drought)
• Ensemble-mean of 20 CMIP5 models shows a nearly homogenous
temperature pattern with ~ 0.6o C warming over Texas.
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What is the Response to observed SSTs?
October 22, 2012 17 • Forcing from observed SSTs (and sea ice) produces drought over Texas
and stronger, more regionally-focused warm anomalies
AMIP 80-member
ensemble results
Observations JJA
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How do the distributions of precipitation and temperature
change in response to forcings?
May 29, 2012 18
• Observed SST patterns made drought far more likely
• Both anthropogenic (GHGs) and boundary forcings (SSTs) likely
contributed to observed warm conditions
Response to SSTs
(dry signal)
Response to GHG
(no dry signal)
Response to SSTs
(warming)
Response to GHG
(warming)
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Beyond specific SSTs, did prolonged drought contribute
to the exceptionally high temperatures?
19
Very likely yes.
Extreme warm summer temperatures were more likely in AMIP runs when
both preceding and concurrent conditions are dry. This likely reflects effects
of soil moisture depletion on surface energy balance.
Estimated PDF of
Texas summer
temperatures when
the preceding and
concurrent
precipitation were
both in lowest 20%
of AMIP runs over
years 1950-2010
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Case Conclusions
It is very likely that virtually all the precipitation deficit is related to natural variability. There is no evidence in either observations or CMIP5 simulations of a systematic shift toward drought. Forcing by SSTs, including by La Niña conditions, strongly increased the likelihood of severe drought.
Preceding and concurrent severe drought can explain much of the extremely warm summer temperatures. Because of this, it is very likely that:
Natural causes account for most of the heat wave intensity. It is very likely land-atmosphere feedbacks associated with extremely low soil moisture and desiccated vegetation contributed significantly to the extreme heat.
Anthropogenic warming is estimated to have provided an additional contribution to the observed heat wave magnitude (~0.6oC, or roughly 20%) . This warming increased the probability of achieving a record-breaking warm summer, but by itself was not the dominant cause.
20
The results suggest that the extreme Texas drought of 2010-11 was
primarily due to natural causes. While anthropogenic climate
change is not required to explain the extreme heat wave, it likely
helped make what would have been an extremely warm summer
even more exceptional.
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Summary
Framed event attribution around the question of identifying the most likely causes for an observed event.
Provided an analogy between medical case diagnosis and physical-diagnostic event attribution.
Illustrated this approach and findings for one case study, the recent Texas drought/heat wave.
21
Event attribution is key to developing predictive understanding.
Obtaining such understanding is a fundamental objective of Climate
Diagnostics and Prediction Workshops, and more generally of
climate science.