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Opacity

Precipitation

Key messages:

  • Familiar North (wetter) - South (dryer) gradient of precipitation changes
  • Drying in the South is most pronounced in the summer months
  • Ensemble agreement on the direction of change is highest over the Iberian Peninsula, Eastern, and Northern Europe

Why is the content of this map important?

These maps show that patterns of precipitation change are highly non-uniform. Both dryer (southern Europe) and wetter (northern Europe) conditions are projected. Despite the robustness of the N-S gradient the exact location of the switch in sign varies considerably from season to season and even from model to model.

Which sectors are affected by this result?

Changes in precipitation link to many sectors. Energy (e.g. hydropower production), health, agriculture (e.g. crop yields) and tourism are all affected by reductions/increases in water availability. See these stories to better understand the range of impacts that can be expected.

What is shown on the maps?

The maps show precipitation in units of mm/day. Attention should be given to the seasonal changes. Increases in winter precipitation are projected for much of Europe. Summer drying is most evident in southern Europe and the Mediterranean region. These changes are important as they reinforce and potentially exacerbate existing patterns and vulnerabilities.

Details and further information:

The detailed regional climate IMPACT2C Policy Brief No. 1.

Additional information:

To investigate this, the ensemble mean of the five mandatory climate simulations is used. Hence, the ensemble consists of 5 simulations in total.

Author:

Stefan Sobolowski

Uni Research AS (UniRes), Norway