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Indicator Assessment

Global and European temperature

Indicator Assessment
Prod-ID: IND-4-en
  Also known as: CSI 012 , CLIM 001
Published 01 Aug 2014 Last modified 11 May 2021
34 min read
This page was archived on 25 Aug 2017 with reason: A new version has been published

Global

  • Three independent long records of global average near-surface (land and ocean) annual temperature show that the decade between 2004 and 2013 was 0.75 °C to 0.81 °C warmer than the pre-industrial average.
  • The rate of change in global average temperature has been close to the indicative limit of 0.2°C per decade in recent decades.
  • Variations of global mean near-surface temperature on decadal time scales are strongly influenced by natural factors. Over the last 10-15 years global near-surface temperature rise has been slower than in previous decades. This recent slow-down in surface warming is due in roughly equal measure to reduced radiative forcing from natural factors (volcanic eruptions and solar activity) and to a cooling contribution from internal variability within the climate system (the redistribution of heat to the deeper ocean).
  • The Arctic region has warmed significantly more rapidly than the global mean, and this pattern is projected to continue into the future.
  • The best estimate for further rises in global average temperature over this century is from 1.0 to 3.7°C above the period 1971-2000 for the lowest and highest representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios. The uncertainty ranges for the lowest and highest RCP are 0.3–1.7°C and 2.6–4.8°C, respectively.
  • The EU and UNFCCC target of limiting global average temperature increase to less than 2°C above the pre-industrial levels is projected to be exceeded between 2042 and 2050 by the three highest of the four IPCC scenarios (RCPs).

Europe

  • Annual average temperature across the European land areas has warmed more than global average temperature, and slightly more than global land temperature. The average temperature for the European land area for the last decade (2004–2013) is 1.3°C above the pre-industrial level, which makes it the warmest decade on record.
  • Annual average land temperature over Europe is projected to continue increasing by more than global average temperature over the rest of this century, by around 2.4 °C and 4.1 °C under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 respectively.
  • Extremes of cold have become less frequent in Europe while warm extremes have become more frequent. Since 1880 the average length of summer heat waves over western Europe doubled and the frequency of hot days almost tripled.

Global assessment

Past trends

Records of global average temperature show long-term warming trends since the end of the 19th century, which have been most rapid since the 1970s. Three independent analyses of global average temperature using near-surface observation records — HadCRUT4 (Morice et al. 2012); NOAA-NCDC (Smith et al. 2008); and NASA-GISS (Hansen et al. 2012), — show similar amounts of warming in 2004 to 2013, relative to pre-industrial temperatures (using the earliest observations at the end of the 19th century as a proxy), of 0.75 °C, 0.78 °C and 0.81 °C, respectively (Fig. 1). This magnitude of warming corresponds to more than one third of the 2 °C warming that is compatible with the global climate stabilisation target of the EU and UNFCCC.

Global average temperature has warmed over most of the last 140 years, but some comparatively short cooling periods have also occurred (Fig. 2). The warming rate was between 0.13 and 0.24 °C per decade for all 20-year periods since 1976, which is close to the indicative limit of 0.2 °C per decade proposed by some scientific studies (WBGU, 2003; van Vliet and Leemans, 2006). The recent slow-down in global average temperature rise means this limit is unlikely to be exceeded in the next few years (IPCC, 2013).

Over the last 10–15 years the rise in global average surface temperature has been slower than in previous decades. This slow-down is due in roughly equal measure to a reduced trend in radiative forcing from natural factors (volcanic eruptions and solar activity) and to a cooling contribution from internal variability within the climate system (in particular increased heat uptake by the oceans). Heat uptake by the oceans is clearly observed in the upper 700m over the last 60 years, and unlike the surface air temperature does not show a slow-down. Recent observations show warming also of the deeper ocean between 700 m and 2000 m depth and below 3000 m depth (IPCC, 2013).

Projections

The global average temperature will continue to increase throughout this century as a result of projected further increases in GHG concentrations. Forced by a range of future possible emissions scenarios - Representative Concentration Pathways, RCPs, underlying the IPCC climate projections (Moss et al., 2010), the central estimate for the warming averaged for the near future (2016–2035) compared to 1986–2005 is between + 0.4 °C and + 1.0 °C. By mid-century (2046–2065), the models project increases of between + 1.0 °C and + 2.0 °C, and by the end of the century (2081–2100), these ranged between + 1.0 °C and + 3.7 °C. When model uncertainty is included, the likely range is from 0.3–1.7 °C for the lowest scenario (RCP2.6) and 2.6–4.8 °C for the highest scenario (RCP8.5). The low-end RCP scenarios imply a reduction in emissions over this century to well below the levels of emissions seen in recent decades.

The EU and UNFCCC target of limiting global average warming to less than 2.0 °C above pre-industrial levels is projected to be exceeded between 2042 and 2050 by the three highest of the four RCPs (Vautard et al., 2014). These projections show greatest warming over land (roughly twice the global average warming) and at high northern latitudes. These trends are consistent with the observations during the latter part of the 20th century (IPCC, 2013).

In addition to RCP-based climate projections for this century, several studies have projected climate change up to 2300 based on the so-called extended concentration pathways (ECPs). Simulations using the ECPs suggest central estimates for global mean temperature increase by 2300, relative to pre-industrial levels, of between 1.1°C for the extension of RCP2.6 to 8.0°C for the extension of RCP8.5 (Meinshausen et al, 2011).

Global average air temperature anomalies (1850 to 2013) in degrees Celsius (°C) relative to a pre-industrial baseline period

Note: Global average air temperature anomalies (1850 to 2013) in degrees Celsius (°C) relative to a pre-industrial baseline period for 3 analyses of observations: 1) Black line - HadCRUT4 from the UK Met Office Hadley Centre and University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, baseline period 1850-1899 (Morice et al. 2012) with the grey area representing the 95% confidence range, 2) Red line – MLOST from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Centre, baseline period 1880-1899 (Smith et al., 2008), and 3) Blue line - GISSTemp from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies, baseline period 1880-1899 (Hansen et al., 2010). Upper graph shows annual anomalies and lower graph shows decadal average anomalies for the same datasets.

Data source:

Rate of change of global average temperature, 1850–2013 (in ºC per decade)

Note: Rates of change of global average temperature (1850 to 2013) in ºC per decade, based on 10-year running average of the 3 datasets: 1) Black line - HadCRUT4 from the UK Met Office Hadley Centre and University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, baseline period 1850-1899 (Morice et al. 2012), 2) Red line – MLOST from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Centre, baseline period 1880-1899 (Smith et al., 2008), and 3) Blue line - GISSTemp from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies, baseline period 1880-1899 (Hansen et al., 2010).

Data source:

European average air temperature anomalies (1850 to 2013) in °C over land areas only

Note: The sources of the original data: 1) Black line - HadCRUT4 from the UK Met Office Hadley Centre and University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, baseline period 1850-1899 (Morice et al. 2012) with the grey area representing the 95% confidence range, 2) Red line – MLOST from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Centre, baseline period 1880-1899 (Smith et al., 2008), and 3) Blue line - GISSTemp from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies, baseline period 1880-1899 (Hansen et al., 2010). Upper graph shows anomalies and lower graph shows decadal average anomalies for the same datasets. Europe is defined as the area between 35° to 70° North and -25° to 30° East, plus Turkey (35° to 40° North and 30° to 45° East).

Data source:

European average air temperature anomalies (1850 to 2013) in °C over land areas only, for annual (upper), winter (middle) and summer (lower) periods

Note: European average air temperature anomalies (1850 to 2013) in °C over land areas only, for annual (upper), winter (middle) and summer (lower) periods relative to pre-industrial baseline period. 1) Black line - HadCRUT4 from the UK Met Office Hadley Centre and University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit, baseline period 1850-1899 (Morice et al. 2012) with the grey area representing the 95% confidence range, 2) Red line – MLOST from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Centre, baseline period 1880-1899 (Smith et al., 2008), and 3) Blue line - GISSTemp from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies, baseline period 1880-1899 (Hansen et al., 2010).

Data source:

Data provenance info is missing.

Trends in warm days across Europe

Note: How to read the map: Warm days are defined as being above the 90th percentile of the daily maximum temperature. Grid boxes outlined in solid black contain at least 3 stations and so are likely to be more representative of the grid-box. Higher confidence in the long-term trend is shown by a black dot. Area averaged annual time series of percentage changes and trend lines are shown below each map for one area in northern Europe (Green line, 5.6 to 16.9 E and 56.2 to 66.2 N) and one in south-western Europe (Pink line, 350.6 to 1.9 E and 36.2 to 43.7 N).

Data source:

Trends in cool nights across Europe

Note: How to read the map: Cool nights are defined as being below the 10th percentile of the daily minimum temperature. Grid boxes outlined in solid black contain at least 3 stations and so are likely to be more representative of the grid-box. Higher confidence in the long-term trend is shown by a black dot. Area averaged annual time series of percentage changes and trend lines are shown below each map for one area in northern Europe (Green line, 5.6 to 16.9 E and 56.2 to 66.2 N) and one in south-western Europe (Pink line, 350.6 to 1.9 E and 36.2 to 43.7 N).

Data source:

Projected changes in annual, summer and winter temperature

Note: Projected changes in annual (left), summer (middle) and winter (right) near-surface air temperature (°C) in the period 2071-2100, compared with the baseline period 1971-2000 for the forcing scenarios RCP 4.5 (top) and RCP 8.5 (bottom). Model simulations are based on the multi-model ensemble average of RCM simulations from the EURO-CORDEX initiative.

Data source:

Projections of extreme temperatures as represented by the combined number of hot summer (June-August) days (TMAX>35°C) and tropical nights (TMIN>20°C)

Note: Maps show changes in extreme temperature for two future periods, relative to 1961-1990. Extreme temperatures are represented by the combined number of hot summer (June-August) days (TMAX>35°C) and tropical nights (TMIN>20°C). All projections are the average of 5 Regional Climate Model simulations of the EU-ENSEMBLES project using the IPCC SRES A1B emission scenario for the periods 1961-90, 2021-2050 and 2071-2100 (Fischer and Schär, 2010).

Data source:

Annual and seasonal average in Europe

Past trends

The decadal average temperature over European land areas increased by approximately 1.3°C (± 0.1 °C) between pre-industrial times and the decade of 2004 to 2013 (Fig. 3). The interannual temperature variability over Europe is generally much higher in winter than in summer (Fig. 4 middle). The relatively rapid warming trend since the 1980s is most clearly evident in the summer (Fig. 4 lower). Particularly large warming has been observed in the past 50 years over the Iberian Peninsula, across central and north-eastern Europe, and in mountainous regions. According to the E-OBS data set (Haylock et al., 2008), warming was the strongest over Scandinavia, especially in winter, whereas the Iberian Peninsula warmed mostly in summer over the past 30 years (Fig. 5).


Projections

The average temperature over Europe is projected to continue increasing throughout this century. According to projections from the EURO-CORDEX study (Jacob et al, 2013) the increase in annual average European land temperature will be greater than the global average for land temperature. According to the multi-model ensemble mean, the annual temperature for Europe is projected to increase by around 2.4 °C for RCP4.5 emission scenario and 4.1°C for RCP8.5  (between periods 2071–2100 and 1971–2000) (Fig. 6). The warming is projected to be the greatest in north-eastern Europe and Scandinavia in winter and over southern Europe in summer.

Temperature extremes in Europe

Past trend

Consistent with the general warming trend observed across Europe, historic records also show that the number of warm days and nights as well as heat waves have become more frequent, while cool days and nights, cold spells, and frost days, have become less frequent (IPCC, 2012, IPCC 2014).

During the last decade, 500-year-long records in heat waves were broken over 65 % of Europe (Barriopedro et al, 2011).  Since 1960, significant increases in the number of warm days (Fig. 7), and decreases in the number of cool nights have been observed throughout Europe (Fig. 8). Over the period 1960 and 2013, the number of warm days (defined when maximum temperatures are higher than the 90th percentile) increased  between 3 and 10 days per decade across Europe, with the largest increases occurring in southern Europe.  

The number of warm days increased by up to10 days per decade between 1960 and 2013 in southern Europe and by up to 8 days per decade in Scandinavia (Fig. 7). Over the same time period the number of cool nights in Europe decreased by between 2 and 9 days per decade. The Iberian Peninsula, land areas to the south and east of the Mediterranean, north-western Europe and Scandinavia have shown the largest decreases in cool nights with decreases by around 6 days per decade between 1960 and 2013 (Fig. 8).

The historic records show clear long-term warming trends across Europe, but it is normal to observe considerable variability between and within years and regions. For example, average air temperature across most of Europe was well (between 1-2°C) above normal during 2011 even though below average temperatures prevailed across much of northern, western and central Europe during 2010 (Barriopedro et al., 2011). In 2013 northern Europe experienced the coldest spring seen in decades (WMO, 2013), although it was the sixth warmest year on record in Europe.


Projections

Extreme high temperatures across Europe are projected to become more frequent and last longer during this century (Fischer and Schär 2010, IPCC 2013). These changes are consistent with projections of future average warming, as well as observed trends over recent decades. During the 1961 to 1990 period only a small area in southern Spain reached 50 days with both hot summer days and tropical nights. However, climate model projections indicate that 50 days with these conditions would be common across most of the Mediterranean region by the 2071 to 2100 period (Fischer and Schär, 2010) (Fig. 9).

Supporting information

Indicator definition

This indicator shows absolute changes and rates of change in average near-surface temperature for the globe and for a region covering Europe. Near-surface air temperature gives one of the clearest and most consistent signals of global and regional climate change, especially in recent decades. It has been measured for many decades or even centuries at some locations and a dense network of stations across the globe, and especially in Europe, provide regular monitoring of temperature, using standardised measurements, quality control and homogeneity procedures.

This indicator provides guidance for the following policy-relevant questions:

  •  Will the global average temperature increase stay within the UNFCCC policy target of 2.0°C above pre-industrial levels?
  •  Will the rate of global average temperature increase stay below the indicative proposed target of 0.2°C increase per decade?

Global average annual temperature deviations, ‘anomalies’, are discussed relative to a ‘pre-industrial’ period between 1850 and 1899 (beginning of instrumental temperature records).  During this time, anthropogenic greenhouse gases from the industrial revolution (between 1750 and 1850) are considered to have a relatively small influence on climate compared to natural influences. However it should be noted that owing to earlier changes in the climate due to internal and forced natural variability there was not one single pre-industrial climate and it is not clear that there is a rigorous scientific definition of the term ‘pre-industrial climate’.

Temperature changes also influence other aspects of the climate system which can impact on human activities, including sea level, intensity and frequency of floods and droughts, biota and food productivity and infectious diseases. In addition to the global average target, seasonal variations and spatial distributions of temperature change are important, for example to understand the risks that current climate poses to human and natural systems and to assess how these may be impacted by future climate change.

Units

Units are degrees Celsius (°C)  and degrees Celsius per decade (°C/decade).

 

Baseline period

Global average annual temperature is expressed here relative to a ‘pre-industrial’ baseline period of 1850 to 1899, and this period coincides with the beginning of widespread instrumental temperature records. During this time anthropogenic GHGs (greenhouse gases) from industrial activity before 1850 had a relatively small influence on climate compared to natural influences. However, it should be noted that there is no rigorous scientific definition of the term ‘pre-industrial climate’ because climate also changed prior to 1850 due to internal and forced natural variability. Other studies sometimes use a different climatological baseline period, such as the 1971-2000 period used in parts of the IPCC Working Group One contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report  (IPCC, 2013).

 


 

Policy context and targets

Context description

This indicator provides guidance for the following policy-relevant questions:

  • Can the global average temperature increase stay below the EU and UNFCCC policy target of 2.0°C above pre-industrial levels?
  • Can the rate of global average temperature increase stay within the indicative proposed target of 0.2°C increase per decade?

The absolute change and rate of change in global average temperature are both important indicators of the severity of global climate change. Temperature changes also influence other components of the climate system which can impact on human activities, including the hydrosphere with oceans and the cryosphere.

Targets

To avoid serious climate change impacts, the European Council proposed in its Sixth Environmental Action Programme (6EAP), reaffirmed by the Environment Council and the European Council of 22-23 March 2005 (Presidency Conclusions, section IV (46)) and later in the Seventh Environmental Action Programme (7EAP, 2014) , that the global average temperature increase should be limited to not more than 2 0 C above pre-industrial levels. Furthermore the UNFCCC 15th conference of the parties (COP15) recognised in the Copenhagen Accord (UNFCCC, 2009) the scientific evidence for the need to keep global average temperature increase below 2 0C above pre-industrial levels.  In addition, some studies have proposed a 'sustainable' target of limiting the rate of anthropogenic warming to 0.1 to 0.2 0 C per decade.

The target for absolute temperature change (i.e. 2 0C) was initially derived from the variation of global mean temperature during the Holocene, which is the period since the last ice age during which human civilization has developed. Further studies (IPCC, 2007;Vautard, 2014) have pointed out that even a global temperature change of below the 2 0C target would still result in considerable impacts. Vulnerable regions across the world, in particular in developing countries (including least developed countries, small developing island states and Africa), would be most strongly affected. The UNFCCC Copenhagen Accord (2009) therefore foresees a review in 2015 of the scientific evidence for revising the global temperature target to 1.5°C.

Mainstreaming climate change adaptation in EU policies is one of the pillars of the EU Adaptation strategy. In the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, the following is stated on combating climate change: “We must also strengthen our economies, its resilience to climate risks, and our capacity for disaster prevention and response”.

Related policy documents

  • DG CLIMA: Adaptation to climate change
    Adaptation means anticipating the adverse effects of climate change and taking appropriate action to prevent or minimise the damage they can cause, or taking advantage of opportunities that may arise. It has been shown that well planned, early adaptation action saves money and lives in the future. This web portal provides information on all adaptation activities of the European Commission.
  • EU Adaptation Strategy Package
    In April 2013, the European Commission adopted an EU strategy on adaptation to climate change, which has been welcomed by the EU Member States. The strategy aims to make Europe more climate-resilient. By taking a coherent approach and providing for improved coordination, it enhances the preparedness and capacity of all governance levels to respond to the impacts of climate change.
  • European Commission related policy documents
    European Commission related policy documents
  • UNFCCC and related policy documents
    UNFCCC and related policy documents
 

Methodology

Methodology for indicator calculation

Various data sets on trends in global and European temperature have been used for this indicator:

  • Global average seasonal and annual temperature: 3 datasets are used. The HadCRUT  is collaborative products of the Met Office Hadley Centre (sea surface temperature) and the Climatic Research Unit (land temperature) at the University of East Anglia. The global mean annual temperature deviations are in the original source in relation to the base period 1961-1990. The annual deviations shown in the chart have been adjusted to be relative to the period 1880 to 1899 in order to better monitor the EU objective not to exceed 2oC above pre-industrial values.
  • The GISS surface temperature is a product of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies under NASA. The original source anomalies are calculated in the relation to the 1951 to 1980 base period. Annual deviations shown on the chart are adjusted to the 1880 to 1899 period to better monitor the EU objective, of a maximum 2 oC global temperature increase above the pre-industrial values. The indicator has been calculated as a combination of land and sea temperature.
  • The GHCN surface temperature is product of the National Climate Data Centre (NCDC) from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Datasets are available as gridded product from 1880 onwards in monthly time step.  Dataset was created from station data using the Anomaly Method, a method that uses station averages during a specified base period from which the monthly/seasonal/annual departures can be calculated. Anomalies were calculated on a monthly basis for all adjusted stations having at least 20 years of data in the 1961–1990 base period. Station anomalies were then averaged within each 5° by 5° grid box to obtain the gridded anomalies. For those grid boxes without adjusted data, anomalies were calculated from the raw station data using the same technique.
  • European average annual and monthly temperature: The source of the data is the latest version of the gridded CRUTEM (land only). Europe is defined as the area between 35° to 70° Northern latitude, -25° to 30° Eastern longitude, plus Turkey (35° to 40° North, 30° to 45° East). The European anomalies are in the original source in relation to the base period 1961-1990. The annual deviations shown in the chart have been adjusted to be relative to the period 1850-1899. Data source: EEA, based on CRUTEM dataset
  • Annual, winter (December, January, February) and summer (June, July, August) mean temperature deviations in Europe, 1860 to 2008 (oC). The lines in the chart refer to 10-year moving average European land. Data source: EEA, based on CRUTEM datasets.
  • Observed changes in warm spells and frost days indices in the period 1976 to 2009; changes in the duration of warm spells in summer (days per decade) and frequency of frost days in winter (days per decade). Warm spells are defined as a period of at least six consecutive days where the mean daily temperature exceeds the baseline temperature (average daily temperature during the 1961 to 1990 period) by 5 oC. Frost days are defined as a day with an average temperature below 0 °C. Positive values indicate an increase in frequency and negative values a decrease in frequency. Data source: http://eca.knmi.nl/ensembles
  • Modelled number of heat index over Europe during summer. Heat index is defined as days with an apparent temperature above 40.7 oC. Apparent temperature is determined as a human-perceived equivalent temperature caused by the combined effects of air temperature and relative humidity. (left chart: 1961 to 1990 average; middle: 2021 to 2050 average, right: 2071 to 2100 average). Data source: van der Linden P., and J.F.B. Mitchell (eds.) 2009: ENSEMBLES: Climate Change and its Impacts: Summary of research and results from the ENSEMBLES project. Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter EX1 3PB, UK. 160pp.
  • Projected changes in annual (left), summer (middle) and winter (right) near-surface air temperature (°C) in the period 2071-2100 compared to the baseline period 1971-2000 for the forcing scenarios RCP 4.5 (top) and RCP 8.5 (bottom). Model simulations are based on the multi-model ensemble average of RCM simulations from the EURO-CORDEX initiative.  EURO-CORDEX is the European branch of the international CORDEX initiative,  which is a program sponsored by the World Climate Research Program (WRCP) to organize an internationally coordinated framework to produce improved regional climate change projections for all land regions world-wide. The CORDEX-results served as an input for climate change impact and adaptation studies within the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Methodology for gap filling

Global and European average time series for monthly temperature

In the original source the long-term annual and monthly mean HadCRU global temperatures were calculated from 4349 stations for the entire period of the record. There is an irregular distribution in the time and space of available stations (i.e .denser coverage over the more populated parts of the world and increased coverage after 1950).  Maps/tables giving the density of coverage through time are given for land regions by Jones (2003).  The gridding method was climate anomaly method (CAM), which means the station temperature data have been converted to the anomalies according to the WMO standards (baseline period 1961-1990 and at least 15 years of station data in the period) and grid-box values have been produced by simple averaging of the individual station anomaly values within each grid box.

GISS surface temperatures were calculated using around 7200 stations from Global Historical Climatology Network, United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) data, and SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) data from Antarctic stations. Additionally satellite SST has been included for the period after 1980. Temperatures were transformed into anomalies using station normalisation based on the 1951 to 1980 baseline period. Gridding has been done with reference station method using 1200 km influence circle (Hansen et al. 2006).

Surface temperature mean anomalies from Global Historical Climatology Network-Monthly (GHCN-M) has been produced at the NCDC from 2,592 gridded data points based on a 5° by 5° grids for the entire globe. The gridded anomalies were produced from GHCN-M bias corrected data. Gridded data for every month from January 1880 to the most recent month is available. The data are temperature anomalies in degrees Celsius (Jones, 2003).

Other global climate datasets are used by the climate research community, often with a specific purpose or audience in mind, for example processed satellite Earth-observations, and climate reanalyses. Although these are not specifically constructed for climate indicator monitoring, they do show the same temperature trends described here.  Recently one new global temperature dataset has been developed especially for understanding temperature trends. This is the Berkeley Earth temperature record: http://berkeleyearth.org/

Daily climate information

Although Europe has a long history in collecting climate information, datasets containing daily climate information across the continent are scarce. Furthermore, accurate climate analysis requires long term time series without artificial breaks. The objective of the ECA project was to compile such a data set, consisting of homogeneous, long-term daily climate information. To ensure a uniform analysis method and data handling, data were centrally collected from about 200 meteorological stations in most countries of Europe and parts of the Middle East. Furthermore the data were processed and analysed at one institute (i.e. KNMI) (Klok et.al. , 2008).

In order to ensure the quality of the ECA&D climate data set:

  • Statistical homogeneity tests have been applied to detect breaks in the time series;
  • the meta-information accompanied with the data has intensively been analysed, e.g. to check whether observed trends were not triggered by, for example, movements of stations;
  • the final data set has been compared with other data sets, like the aforementioned data set of Climatic Research Unit; and
  • findings of the different exercises have been discussed during workshops with representatives of countries.


Global and European average time series for monthly temperature

Grid values of HadCRUT, GISTEMP and GHCN data sets have been gridded using different interpolation techniques. Each grid-box value for the HadCRUT dataset is the mean of all available station anomaly values, except that station outliers in excess of five standard deviations are omitted (Brohan et al., 2005). GISTEMP temperature anomaly data are gridded into 8000 grid cells using reference station interpolation method with 1200 km influence circle (Hansen et al. 2006). GHCN monthly data consists of 2,592 gridded data points produced on a 5° by 5° basis for the entire globe (Jones, 2003).

Methodology references

No methodology references available.

 

Uncertainties

Methodology uncertainty

The observed increase in average air temperature, particularly during recent decades, is one of the clearest signals of global climate change.

Temperature has been measured over the centuries. There is a range of different methodologies which give similar results suggesting that uncertainty is relatively low. Three data sets have been presented here for the global temperature indicator. Global temperatures from HadCRUT, GISTEMP, and GHCN have been homogenized to minimise the effects of changing measurement methodologies and location.

Data sets uncertainty

Each observation station follows international standards for taking observations set out by WMO. Each National Meteorological Service provides reports on how its data are collected and processed to ensure consistency. This includes recording information about the local environment around the observation station and any changes to that environment. This is important for ensuring the required data accuracy and performing homogeneity tests and adjustments. There are additional uncertainties because temperatures over large areas of the Earth are not observed as a matter of routine. These elements are taken into account by factoring the uncertainty into global average temperature calculations, thereby producing a temperature range rather than one uniquely definite figure (WMO, 2013). The uncertainty of temperature data has decreased over recent decades due to wider use of agreed methodologies and denser monitoring networks. Uncertainty of the temperature data comes from sampling error, temperature bias effect and from the effect of the limited observation coverage. Annual values of global and European temperature are approximately accurate to +/- 0.05 degrees C (two standard errors) for the period since 1951. They are about four times as uncertain during the 1850s, with the accuracy improving gradually between 1860 and 1950 except for temporary deteriorations during data-sparse, wartime intervals. Estimating accuracy is difficult as the individual grid-boxes are not independent of each other and the accuracy of each grid-box time series varies through time (although the variance adjustment has reduced this influence to a large extent). The issue is discussed extensively by Jones et al. (2003), Brohan et al. (2005), and Hansen et al. (2006).

Rationale uncertainty

According to the IPCC 4th Assessment Report (IPCC, 2007), there is very high confidence that the net effect of human activities since 1750 has been one of warming. Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic GHG concentrations.  Moreover, it is extremely likely that more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature from 1951 to 2010 was caused by the anthropogenic increase in greenhouse gas concentrations and other anthropogenic forcings together. The best estimate of the human-induced contribution to warming is similar to the observed warming over this period (IPCC, 2013).

Data sources

Other info

DPSIR: State
Typology: Performance indicator (Type B - Does it matter?)
Indicator codes
  • CSI 012
  • CLIM 001
Frequency of updates
Updates are scheduled once per year
EEA Contact Info