Climate of Europe

A Köppen climate classification map of Europe.

Western Europe has an Oceanic climate, far southern Europe has a Mediterranean climate, and eastern Europe is classified as having a Continental climate. The climate of western Europe is strongly conditioned by the Gulf Stream, which keeps mild air (for the latitude) over Northwestern Europe in the winter months, especially in Ireland, the UK and coastal Norway.

Parts of the central European plains have a hybrid oceanic/continental climate. Four seasons occur in most of Europe away from the Mediterranean. The coastal lowlands near and on the Mediterranean Sea, have more of a wet and dry season pattern, with winter the season of most rainfall, and summers a time of few rainy days.

Overview

Spring in Szczecin, under the influence of Baltic Sea on the climate in the city and all western parts of Poland

The Prevailing westerlies create the basic climate across much of Europe. The Siberian High brings colder, drier weather from the east. Away from the sea, parts of Central and Eastern Europe have a borderline Oceanic/Continental Climate as they are milder than they would otherwise be due to the open ice-free waters of the North/Baltic Seas and lack of mountain barriers, but are not as mild as the Western coasts, and are subject to more frequent snowfalls. The Danube region through the Balkans, Ukraine and Southern Russia have a continental climate with cold winters and hotter summers, some areas bordering on a dry steppe climate with only certain months of higher precipitation, often due to thunderstorms.

A narrow strip along the eastern side of the Black Sea has a modified version of a humid subtropical climate, for example in Sochi, Russia. On the plains of Northern European Russia up to the Ural Mountains, the winter climate is much harsher than elsewhere in Europe with many months of below freezing average temperatures but with periods of hot summer weather. Nevertheless, year-to-year variations can produce different climates such as temperate in the winter, and tropical in the summer.

Gulf Stream

An Image of the Gulf Stream's path and its related branches.
The average number of days per year with precipitation.
The average amount of sunshine yearly (hours).

The climate of Western Europe is milder in comparison to other areas of the same latitude around the globe due to the influence of the Gulf Stream. The Mediterranean’s waters are not as deep as the large oceans, allowing it to become a heat store tempering winters along its coastlines.[1] The Gulf Stream is nicknamed "Europe's central heating", because it makes Europe's climate warmer and wetter than it would otherwise be. The North Atlantic Oscillation and Arctic Oscillation also play large roles in determining the amount of Arctic air that penetrates southward diminishing the Gulf stream’s warming effects during winter.[2]

Compared to areas located in the higher middle latitudes, parts of western Europe have mild winters and higher annual temperatures(though summers are cooler than locations at the same latitude). Berlin, Germany; Calgary, Canada; and Irkutsk, in the Asian part of Russia, lie on around the same latitude; January temperatures in Berlin average around 8 °C (15 °F) higher than those in Calgary (although Calgary sits 1200m higher in altitude), and they are almost 22 °C (40 °F) higher than average temperatures in Irkutsk.[1]

This difference is even larger on the northern part of the continent. The January average in Brønnøysund, Norway,[3] is almost 15 °C warmer than the January average in Nome, Alaska,[4] both towns are situated upwind on the west coast of the continents at 65°N, and as much as 42 °C warmer than the January average in Yakutsk which is actually slightly further south. Further south the oceanic climate of Europe compares thermally to North America, at around 48°N Rennes, France has about an equal average temperature throughout the year to Seattle, Washington, although the latter has drier summers with much wetter winters.[5]

Precipitation

Clouds over Europe in September 2012

[6] The downpour of precipitation found along the eastern coasts of Europe is due to the westerly wind flow which dominates across the continent. A bulk of the precipitation across the Alps falls between March and December. The wet season in lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea lasts from October through March, with November and December typically the wettest months.[6]

For example, the monthly rainfall in Athens ranges from 6 mm (July) during their dry season to 71 mm (December) during their wet season.[7] Summer rainfall across the continent evaporates completely into the warm atmosphere, leaving winter precipitation to be the source of groundwater for Europe.[8] Places with significant impact by acid rain across the continent include most of eastern Europe from Poland northward into Scandinavia.[9]

The European Monsoon (more commonly known as the Return of the Westerlies) is the result of a resurgence of westerly winds from the Atlantic, where they become loaded with wind and rain. Rather than a traditional monsoon, where warm seas fuel precipitation and storms, they are more cyclonic low-pressure systems that travel along the section of the gulfstream.[10] These Westerly winds are a common phenomenon during the European winter, but they ease as Spring approaches in late March and through April and May. The winds pick up again in June, which is why this phenomenon is also known as "the return of the westerlies".[11]

The rain usually arrives in two waves, at the beginning of June and again in mid to late June. These storms generally feature significantly lower than average temperatures, fierce rain or hail, thunder and strong winds.[12] The Return of the Westerlies affects Europe's Northern Atlantic coastline, such as Ireland, Great Britain, the Benelux countries, Western Germany, Northern France and parts of Scandinavia.

There are cycles seen within the rainfall data from Northern Europe between Great Britain and Germany, which are seen at 16 years. Southern Europe experiences a 22-year cycle in rainfall variation. Other smaller term cycles are seen at 10-12 year and 6-7 year periods within the rainfall record.[13] Long term trends suggest rainfall within Greece has been decreasing since 1981.[14]

Rainfall averages between 36 mm (March) to 54 mm (November) in London and from 36 mm (March) to 88 mm (July) in Moscow.[15][16][17]

Temperature

Most of Europe sees seasonal temperatures consistent with temperate climates in other parts of the world, though summers north of the Mediterranean Sea are cooler than most temperate climates experience in summer. Among the cities with a population over 100,000 people in Europe, the coldest winters are mostly found in Russia, with daily highs in winter averaging 0 C (32 F), while the mildest winters in the continent are in coastal southern Spain and the southernmost coast of Crete.

Almería, Málaga, Cádiz, Algeciras and Ierapetra average over 12 °C (54 °F) in January with 16–20 °C (61–68 °F) during the day. The hottest summers of the continent occur in cities and towns of the hinterland of southern Spain: July average highs in this region are 36.2 °C (97.2 °F) in Seville and 36.9 °C (98.4 °F) in Cordoba.

Average daytime temperature (°C)
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Helsinki[17] -1.3 -1.9 1.6 7.6 14.4 18.5 21.5 19.8 14.6 9.0 3.7 0.5 9.0
Minsk[18] -2.1 -1.4 3.8 12.2 18.7 21.5 23.6 22.8 16.7 10.2 2.9 -1.2 10.8
Budapest[19] 1.2 4.5 10.2 16.3 21.4 24.4 26.5 26.0 22.1 16.1 8.1 3.1 15.0
London[20] 8.1 8.6 11.6 14.6 18.1 21.0 23.4 23.1 20.0 15.5 11.3 8.4 15.3
Paris[21] 6.9 8.2 11.8 14.7 19.0 21.8 24.4 24.6 20.8 15.8 10.4 7.8 15.5
Bucharest[22] 1.5 4.1 10.2 18.0 23.3 26.8 28.8 28.5 24.6 18.0 10.0 3.8 16.5
Rome[23] 14.0 15.1 18.3 21.1 25.9 29.6 32.3 32.5 27.2 23.0 18.1 15.3 22.4
Barcelona[24][25] 13.9 14.3 16.4 18.9 22.5 26.1 28.6 29.0 26.0 22.5 17.1 14.5 20.6
Lisbon[26] 14.8 16.2 18.8 19.8 22.1 25.7 27.9 28.3 26.5 22.5 18.2 15.3 21.5
Athens[27] 12.9 13.6 16.0 20.3 25.1 29.8 32.6 32.3 28.9 23.1 18.6 14.7 22.3
Malta[28] 15.6 15.6 17.3 19.8 24.1 28.6 31.5 31.8 28.5 25.0 20.7 17.1 23.0
Málaga[29] 16.8 17.7 19.6 21.4 24.3 28.1 30.5 30.8 28.2 24.1 20.1 17.5 23.3
Average sea temperature (°C)
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Gdańsk 4 3 3 4 8 13 16 18 15 12 9 6
Brighton 9 8 8 9 11 13 15 17 17 16 13 11
Marseille 13 13 13 14 16 18 21 22 21 18 16 14
Lisbon 15 15 15 16 17 18 19 20 20 19 18 17
Barcelona 13 13 13 14 17 20 23 25 23 20 17 15
Rome 16 15 16 17 20 22 26 27 25 21 19 16
Athens 16 15 15 16 18 21 24 24 24 21 19 17
Naples 16 15 16 18 20 23 27 28 26 23 20 17
Valencia 14 14 14 16 19 23 25 26 25 22 19 16
Málaga 16 16 16 17 18 21 23 24 22 20 18 17
Malta 16 16 15 16 18 21 24 26 25 23 21 18

Tornadoes

The Netherlands has the highest average number of recorded tornadoes per area of any country in the world (more than 20, or 0.0013 per sq mi (0.00048 per km2), annually), followed by the UK (around 33, or 0.00035 per sq mi (0.00013 per km2), per year),[30][31] but most are small and cause minor damage. In absolute number of events, ignoring area, the UK experiences more tornadoes than any other European country, excluding waterspouts.[32] Europe uses its own tornado scale, known as the TORRO scale, which ranges from a T0 for extremely weak tornadoes to T11 for the most powerful known tornadoes.[33]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "European Climate". World Book. World Book, Inc. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2011-02-15.
  2. ↑ Seager, Richard (July–August 2006). "The Source of Europe's Mild Climate". American Scientist Online. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  3. ↑ Brønnøysund
  4. ↑ Nome
  5. ↑ Yakutsk
  6. 1 2 A. V. Mehta and S. Yang (2008-12-22). "Precipitation climatology over Mediterranean Basin from ten years of TRMM measurements" (PDF). Advances in Geosciences. Copernicus Publications. 17: 87–91. Bibcode:2008AdG....17...87M. Retrieved 2010-01-09.
  7. ↑ Athens, Greece(retrieved 9 January 2010)
  8. ↑ Richard Thornsen (1990). "Effect of Climate Variability and Change in Groundwater in Europe" (PDF). Nordic Hydrology. 21: 187. Retrieved 2010-01-10.
  9. ↑ Ed. Hatier (1993). "Acid Rain in Europe". United Nations Environment Programme GRID Arendal. Archived from the original on 2009-08-22. Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  10. ↑ Visser, S.W. (1953). Some remarks on the European monsoon. Birkhäuser: Basel.
  11. ↑ Leo Hickman (2008-07-09). "The Question: What is the European monsoon?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
  12. ↑ Paul Simons (2009-06-07). "'European Monsoon' to blame for cold and rainy start to June". The Times. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
  13. ↑ R. G. Vines (1985-03-25). "European Rainfall Patterns". International Journal of Climatology. 5 (6): 607–616. Bibcode:1985IJCli...5..607V. doi:10.1002/joc.3370050603. Retrieved 2010-01-09.
  14. ↑ J. D. Pnevmatikos and B. D. Katsoulis (2006-05-31). "The changing rainfall regime in Greece and its impact on climatological means". Meteorological Applications. Cambridge University Press. 13 (4): 331–345. Bibcode:2006MeApp..13..331P. doi:10.1017/S1350482706002350.
  15. ↑ Average conditions: London, United Kingdom(retrieved 9 January 2010)
  16. ↑ Average conditions: Moscow, Russian Federation(retrieved 9 January 2010)
  17. 1 2 Helsinki
  18. ↑ "Pogoda.ru.net" (in Russian). Retrieved 8 September 2007.
  19. ↑ http://met.hu/
  20. ↑ http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate/gcpuzu47t
  21. ↑ http://france.meteofrance.com/france/climat_france?CLIMAT_PORTLET.path=climatstationn%2F75114001
  22. ↑ "Bucuresti Baneasa Climate Normals 1961-1990". www.NOAA.gov. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  23. ↑ http://clima.meteoam.it/AtlanteClimatico/pdf/%28239%29Roma%20Ciampino.pdf
  24. ↑ "Weather Information for Barcelona - World Meteorological Organization (United Nations)".
  25. ↑ "Valores Climatológicos Normales. Barcelona / Aeropuerto - Agencia Estatal de Meteorología". Archived from the original on 2011-02-16.
  26. ↑ "Monthly Averages for Lisbon, Portugal". Instituto de Meteorologia. Retrieved 2012-06-16.
  27. ↑ http://www.yr.no/place/Greece/Attica/Athens/statistics.html
  28. ↑ "Average temperatures in Malta 1981-2010". Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  29. ↑ "Valores climatológicos normales. Málaga - Agencia Estatal de Meteorología". Retrieved 2018-01-24.
  30. ↑ J Holden, A Wright (2003-03-13). "UK tornado climatology and the development of simple prediction tools" (PDF). Quarterly Journal of the Meteorological Society. Royal Meteorological Society. 130: 1009–1021. Bibcode:2004QJRMS.130.1009H. doi:10.1256/qj.03.45. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-08-24. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
  31. ↑ Staff (2002-03-28). "Natural Disasters: Tornadoes". BBC Science and Nature. BBC. Archived from the original on 2002-10-14. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
  32. ↑ Nikolai Dotzek (2003-03-20). "An updated estimate of tornado occurrence in Europe" (PDF). Atmospheric Research. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-14. Retrieved 2009-12-13.
  33. ↑ Meaden, Terrance (2004). "Wind Scales: Beaufort, T — Scale, and Fujita's Scale". Tornado and Storm Research Organisation. Archived from the original on 2010-04-30. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.