Originally published by our Content Partner: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (other articles)

Regional Climate Projections

This chapter should be cited as: Christensen, J.H., B. Hewitson, A. Busuioc, A. Chen, X. Gao, I. Held, R. Jones, R.K. Kolli, W.-T. Kwon, R. Laprise, V. Magaña Rueda, L. Mearns, C.G. Menéndez, J. Räisänen, A. Rinke, A. Sarr and P. Whetton, 2007: Regional Climate Projections. In: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.

Executive Summary

Increasingly reliable regional climate change projections are now available for many regions of the world due to advances in modelling and understanding of the physical processes of the climate system. A number of important themes have emerged:

• Warming over many land areas is greater than global annual mean warming due to less water availability for evaporative cooling and a smaller thermal inertia as compared to the oceans.
• Warming generally increases the spatial variability of precipitation, contributing to a reduction of rainfall in the subtropics and an increase at higher latitudes and in parts of the tropics. The precise location of boundaries between regions of robust increase and decrease remains uncertain and this is commonly where Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Model (AOGCM) projections disagree.
• The poleward expansion of the subtropical highs, combined with the general tendency towards reductions in subtropical precipitation, creates especially robust projections of a reduction in precipitation at the poleward edges of the subtropics. Most of the regional projections of reductions in precipitation in the 21st century are associated with areas adjacent to these subtropical highs.
• There is a tendency for monsoonal circulations to result in increased precipitation due to enhanced moisture convergence, despite a tendency towards weakening of the monsoonal flows themselves. However, many aspects of tropical climatic responses remain uncertain.

Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models remain the primary source of regional information on the range of possible future climates. A clearer picture of the robust aspects of regional climate change is emerging due to improvement in model resolution, the simulation of processes of importance for regional change and the expanding set of available simulations. Advances have been made in developing probabilistic information at regional scales from the AOGCM simulations, but these methods remain in the exploratory phase. There has been less development extending this to downscaled regional information. However, downscaling methods have matured since the Third Assessment Report (TAR; IPCC, 2001) and have been more widely applied, although only in some regions has large-scale coordination of multi-model downscaling of climate change simulations been achieved.

Regional climate change projections presented here are assessed drawing on information from four potential sources: AOGCM simulations; downscaling of AOGCM-simulated data using techniques to enhance regional detail; physical understanding of the processes governing regional responses; and recent historical climate change.

Previous chapters describe observed climate change on regional scales (Chapter 3) and compare global model simulations with these changes (Chapter 9). Comparisons of model simulations of temperature change with observations can be used to help constrain future regional temperature projections. Regional assessments of precipitation change rely primarily on convergence in both global and downscaling models along with physical insights. Where there is near unanimity among models with good supporting physical arguments, as is more typical for middle and higher latitudes, these factors encourage stronger statements as to the likelihood of a regional climate change. In some circumstances, physical insights alone clearly indicate the direction of future change.

The summary likelihood statements on projected regional climate are as follows:

• Temperature projections: These are comparable in magnitude to those of the TAR and confidence in the regional projections is now higher due to a larger number and variety of simulations, improved models, a better understanding of the role of model deficiencies and more detailed analyses of the results. Warming, often greater than the global mean, is very likely over all landmasses.
• Precipitation projections: Overall patterns of change are comparable to those of TAR, with greater confidence in the projections for some regions. Model agreement is seen over more and larger regions. For some regions, there are grounds for stating that the projected precipitation changes are likely or very likely. For other regions, confidence in the projected change remains weak.
• Extremes: There has been a large increase in the available analyses of changes in extremes. This allows for a more comprehensive assessment for most regions. The general findings are in line with the assessment made in TAR and now have a higher level of confidence derived from multiple sources of information. The most notable improvements in confidence relate to the regional statements concerning heat waves, heavy precipitation and droughts. Despite these advances, specific analyses of models are not available for some regions, which is re.ected in the robust statements on extremes. In particular, projections concerning extreme events in the tropics remain uncertain. The difficulty in projecting the distribution of tropical cyclones adds to this uncertainty. Changes in extra-tropical cyclones are dependent on details of regional atmospheric circulation response, some of which remain uncertain.

The following summarises the robust findings of the projected regional change over the 21st century. Supporting narratives are provided in Sections 11.2 to 11.9. These changes are assessed as likely to very likely taking into account the uncertainties in climate sensitivity and emission trajectories (in the Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) B1/A1B/B2 scenario range) discussed in earlier chapters.

All land regions:

It is very likely that all land regions will warm in the 21st century.

Africa:

Warming is very likely to be larger than the global annual mean warming throughout the continent and in all seasons, with drier subtropical regions warming more than the moister tropics. Annual rainfall is likely to decrease in much of Mediterranean Africa and the northern Sahara, with a greater likelihood of decreasing rainfall as the Mediterranean coast is approached. Rainfall in southern Africa is likely to decrease in much of the winter rainfall region and western margins. There is likely to be an increase in annual mean rainfall in East Africa. It is unclear how rainfall in the Sahel, the Guinean Coast and the southern Sahara will evolve.

Mediterranean and Europe:

Annual mean temperatures in Europe are likely to increase more than the global mean. Seasonally, the largest warming is likely to be in northern Europe in winter and in the Mediterranean area in summer. Minimum winter temperatures are likely to increase more than the average in northern Europe. Maximum summer temperatures are likely to increase more than the average in southern and central Europe. Annual precipitation is very likely to increase in most of northern Europe and decrease in most of the Mediterranean area. In central Europe, precipitation is likely to increase in winter but decrease in summer. Extremes of daily precipitation are very likely to increase in northern Europe. The annual number of precipitation days is very likely to decrease in the Mediterranean area. Risk of summer drought is likely to increase in central Europe and in the Mediterranean area. The duration of the snow season is very likely to shorten, and snow depth is likely to decrease in most of Europe.

Asia:

Warming is likely to be well above the global mean in central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and northern Asia, above the global mean in eastern Asia and South Asia, and similar to the global mean in Southeast Asia. Precipitation in boreal winter is very likely to increase in northern Asia and the Tibetan Plateau, and likely to increase in eastern Asia and the southern parts of Southeast Asia. Precipitation in summer is likely to increase in northern Asia, East Asia, South Asia and most of Southeast Asia, but is likely to decrease in central Asia. It is very likely that heat waves/hot spells in summer will be of longer duration, more intense and more frequent in East Asia. Fewer very cold days are very likely in East Asia and South Asia. There is very likely to be an increase in the frequency of intense precipitation events in parts of South Asia, and in East Asia. Extreme rainfall and winds associated with tropical cyclones are likely to increase in East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia.

North America:

The annual mean warming is likely to exceed the global mean warming in most areas. Seasonally, warming is likely to be largest in winter in northern regions and in summer in the southwest. Minimum winter temperatures are likely to increase more than the average in northern North America. Maximum summer temperatures are likely to increase more than the average in the southwest. Annual mean precipitation is very likely to increase in Canada and the northeast USA, and likely to decrease in the southwest. In southern Canada, precipitation is likely to increase in winter and spring but decrease in summer. Snow season length and snow depth are very likely to decrease in most of North America except in the northernmost part of Canada where maximum snow depth is likely to increase.

Central and South America:

The annual mean warming is likely to be similar to the global mean warming in southern South America but larger than the global mean warming in the rest of the area. Annual precipitation is likely to decrease in most of Central America and in the southern Andes, although changes in atmospheric circulation may induce large local variability in precipitation response in mountainous areas. Winter precipitation in Tierra del Fuego and summer precipitation in south-eastern South America is likely to increase. It is uncertain how annual and seasonal mean rainfall will change over northern South America, including the Amazon forest. However, there is qualitative consistency among the simulations in some areas (rainfall increasing in Ecuador and northern Peru, and decreasing at the northern tip of the continent and in southern northeast Brazil).

Australia and New Zealand:

Warming is likely to be larger than that of the surrounding oceans, but comparable to the global mean. The warming is less in the south, especially in winter, with the warming in the South Island of New Zealand likely to remain less than the global mean. Precipitation is likely to decrease in southern Australia in winter and spring. Precipitation is very likely to decrease in south-western Australia in winter. Precipitation is likely to increase in the west of the South Island of New Zealand. Changes in rainfall in northern and central Australia are uncertain. Increased mean wind speed is likely across the South Island of New Zealand, particularly in winter. Increased frequency of extreme high daily temperatures in Australia and New Zealand, and a decrease in the frequency of cold extremes is very likely. Extremes of daily precipitation are very likely to increase, except possibly in areas of significant decrease in mean rainfall (southern Australia in winter and spring). Increased risk of drought in southern areas of Australia is likely.

Polar regions:

The Arctic is very likely to warm during this century more than the global mean. Warming is projected to be largest in winter and smallest in summer. Annual arctic precipitation is very likely to increase. It is very likely that the relative precipitation increase will be largest in winter and smallest in summer. Arctic sea ice is very likely to decrease in its extent and thickness. It is uncertain how the Arctic Ocean circulation will change. The Antarctic is likely to warm and the precipitation is likely to increase over the continent. It is uncertain to what extent the frequency of extreme temperature and precipitation events will change in the polar regions.

Small Islands:

Sea levels are likely to rise on average during the century around the small islands of the Caribbean Sea, Indian Ocean and northern and southern Pacific Oceans. The rise will likely not be geographically uniform but large deviations among models make regional estimates across the Caribbean, Indian and Pacific Oceans uncertain. All Caribbean, Indian Ocean and North and South Pacific islands are very likely to warm during this century. The warming is likely to be somewhat smaller than the global annual mean. Summer rainfall in the Caribbean is likely to decrease in the vicinity of the Greater Antilles but changes elsewhere and in winter are uncertain. Annual rainfall is likely to increase in the northern Indian Ocean with increases likely in the vicinity of the Seychelles in December, January and February, and in the vicinity of the Maldives in June, July and August, while decreases are likely in the vicinity of Mauritius in June, July and August. Annual rainfall is likely to increase in the equatorial Pacific, while decreases are projected by most models for just east of French Polynesia in December, January and February.

11.1 Introduction

Increasingly reliable regional climate change projections are now available for many regions of the world due to advances in modelling and understanding of the physical processes of the climate system. Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models (AOGCMs) remain the foundation for projections while downscaling techniques now provide valuable additional detail. Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models cannot provide information at scales .ner than their computational grid (typically of the order of 200 km) and processes at the unresolved scales are important. Providing information at .ner scales can be achieved through using high resolution in dynamical models or empirical statistical downscaling. Development of downscaling methodologies remains an important focus. Downscaled climate change projections tailored to speci.c needs are only now starting to become available.

11.1.1 Summary of the Third Assessment Report

The assessment of regional climate projections in the Third Assessment Report (TAR; Chapter 10 of IPCC, 2001) was largely restricted to General Circulation Model (GCM)-derived temperature with limited precipitation statements. The major assessment of temperature change was that it is very likely all land areas will warm more than the global average (with the exception of Southeast Asia and South America in June, July and August; JJA), with amplification at high latitudes. The changes in precipitation assessed to be likely were: an increase over northern mid-latitude regions in winter and over high-latitude regions in both winter and summer; in December, January and February (DJF), an increase in tropical Africa, little change in Southeast Asia, and a decrease in Central America; an increase or little change in JJA over South Asia and a decrease over Australia and the Mediterranean region. These projections were almost entirely based on analysis of nine coarse-resolution AOGCMs that had performed transient experiments for the 20th century with the speci.cations for the A2 and B2 emission scenarios. Chapter 10 of the TAR noted that studies with regional models indicate that changes at finer scales may be substantially different in magnitude from these large sub-continental findings.

Information available for assessment regarding climate variability and extremes at the regional scale was too sparse for it to be meaningfully drawn together in a systematic manner. However, some statements of a more generic nature were made. It was assessed that the variability of daily to interannual temperatures is likely to decrease in winter and increase in summer for mid-latitude Northern Hemisphere (NH) land areas, daily high temperature extremes are likely to increase and future increases in mean precipitation are very likely to lead to an increase in variability. In some specifically analysed regions, it was assessed that extreme precipitation may increase and there were indications that droughts or dry spells may increase in occurrence in Europe, North America and Australia.

11.1.2 Introduction to Regional Projections

Assessments of climate change projections are provided here on a region-by-region basis. The discussion is organised according to the same continental-scale regions used by Working Group II (WGII) in the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) and in earlier assessments: Africa, Europe and Mediterranean, Asia, North America, Central and South America, Australia-New Zealand, Polar Regions and Small Islands. While the topics covered vary somewhat from region to region, each section includes a discussion of key processes of importance for climate change in that region, relevant aspects of model skill in simulating current climate, and projections of future regional climate change based on global models and downscaling techniques.

Each of these continental-scale regions encompasses a broad range of climates and is too large to be used as a basis for conveying quantitative regional climate change information. Therefore, each is subdivided into a number of sub-continental or oceanic regions. The sub-continental regions as defined in Table 11.1 are the framework for developing specific regional or sub-continental robust statements of projected change.

Area-averaged temperature and precipitation changes are presented from the coordinated set of climate model simulations archived at the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI; subsequently called the multi-model data set or MMD). The regions are very close to those initially devised by Giorgi and Francesco (2000) with some minor modfications similar to those of Ruosteenoja et al. (2003). They have simple shapes and are no smaller than the horizontal scales on which current AOGCMs are useful for climate simulations (typically judged to be roughly 1,000 km).

These regional averages have some deficiencies for discussion of the AOGCM projections. In several instances, the simple definition of these boxes results in spatial averaging over regions in which precipitation is projected to increase and decrease. There are also sub-regions where the case can be made for a robust and physically plausible hydrological response, information about which is lost in the regional averages. Partially to help in discussing these features, this chapter also uses maps of temperature and precipitation responses, interpolated to a grid with 128 longitudes by 64 latitudes which is typical of many of the lower-resolution atmospheric models in the MMD.

In the regional discussion to follow, the starting points are temperature and precipitation. Changes in temperature are introduced in each continental section by plotting for each of the regions the evolution of the range of projected decadal mean change for the A1B scenario through the 21st century (simulations hereafter referred to as MMD-A1B). These are put into the context of observed changes in the 20th century by plotting the observed changes and how well the models reproduce these. This summary information is displayed for continental regions in Box 11.1, which also contains details of how the figures were constructed. The equivalent figures for the individual regions of each continental-scale region are displayed in the following sections. These are constructed in the same way as Box 11.1, Figure 1. The 20th-century parts of these figures are also displayed in Section 9.4, where more details on their construction are provided. The discussion on precipitation provides a limited view of hydrological changes. Supplementary Material Figure S11.1 expands on this issue by comparing the annual mean responses in precipitation and in precipitation minus evaporation over the 21st century in the MMD-A1B projections. Over North America and Europe, for example, the region of drying in the sense of precipitation minus evaporation is shifted poleward compared to the region of reduced precipitation. A summary of the more significant hydrological cycle changes from the regional discussions is presented in Box 11.1.

Table 11.1 provides detailed information for each region generated from the MMD-A1B models focusing on the change in climate between the 1980 to 1999 period in the 20th-century integrations and the 2080 to 2099 period. The distribution of the annual and seasonal mean surface air temperature response and percentage change in precipitation are described by the median, the 25 and 75% values (half of the models lie between these two values) and the maximum and minimum values in the model ensemble. Information on model biases in these regional averages for the 1980 to 1999 simulations is provided in Supplementary Material Table S11.1 in a similar format. Maps of biases are referred to in some of the following and are included in the Supplementary Material as well. Data sources used in these comparisons are listed in the table and figure captions where these biases are displayed.

Most of the discussion focuses on the A1B scenario. The global mean near-surface temperature responses (between the period 1980 to 1999 of the 20th-century integrations and the period 2080 to 2099) in the ensemble mean of the MMD models are in the ratio 0.69:1:1.17 for the B1:A1B:A2 scenarios. The local temperature responses in nearly all regions closely follow the same ratio, as discussed in Chapter 10 and as illustrated in Supplementary Material Figures S11.2 to S11.4. Therefore, little is gained by repeating the discussion of the A1B scenario for the other scenarios. The ensemble mean local precipitation responses also approximately scale with the global mean temperature response, although not as precisely as the temperature itself. Given the substantial uncertainties in hydrological responses, the generally smaller signal/noise ratio and the similarities in the basic structure of the AOGCM precipitation responses in the different scenarios, a focus on A1B seems justified for the precipitation as well. The overall regional assessments, however, do rely on all available scenario information.

Given the dominantly linear response of the models, the 2080 to 2099 period allows the greatest clarity of the background climate change underlying the interannual and decadal variability. In the ensemble mean AOGCM projections there is no indication of abrupt climate change, nor does the literature on individual models provide any strong suggestions of robust nonlinearities. Some local temporal nonlinearities are to be expected, for example as the sea ice boundary retreats from a particular location in the Arctic. While the possibility exists that changes of more abrupt character could happen, such as major ocean circulation or land surface/vegetation change, there is little basis to judge the plausibility of these factors (see Chapter 10). Therefore, this discussion is based on this linear picture.

Table 11.1 also provides some simple estimates of the signal-to-noise ratio. The signal is the change in 20-year means of seasonal or annual mean temperature or precipitation. The noise is an estimate of the internal variability of 20-year means of seasonal or annual mean temperature or precipitation, as generated by the models. The signal-to-noise ratio is converted into the time interval that is required before the signal is clearly discernible, assuming that the signal grows linearly over the century at the average rate in the ensemble mean A1B projection. ‘Clearly discernible’ is defined in this context as distinguishable with 95% confidence. As an example, the annual mean precipitation increase in northern Europe (NEU) (Table 11.1) is clearly discernible in these models after 45 years, meaning that the 20-year average from 2025 to 2044 will be greater than the 20-year mean over 1980 to 1999 with 95% confidence, accounting only for the internal variability in the models and no other sources of uncertainty. In contrast, the annual temperature response in Southeast Asia (SEA) rises above the noise by this measure after only 10 years, implying that the average temperature over the period 1990 to 2009 is clearly discernible in the models from the average over the control period 1980 to 1999. This measure is likely an overestimate of the time of emergence of the signal as compared to that obtained with more re.ned detection strategies (of the kind discussed in Chapter 9). This noise estimate is solely based on the models and must be treated with caution, but it would be wrong to assume that models always underestimate this internal variability. Some models overestimate and some underestimate the amplitude of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), for example, thereby over- or underestimating the most important source of interannual variability in the tropics. On the other hand, few models capture the range of decadal variability of rainfall in West Africa, for example (Hoerling, et al., 2006; Section 8.4).

Also included in Table 11.1 is an estimate of the probability of extremely warm, extremely wet and extremely dry seasons, for the A1B scenario and for the time period 2080 to 2099. An ‘extremely warm’ summer is defined as follows. Examining all of the summers simulated in a particular realisation of a model in the 1980 to 1999 control period, the warmest of these 20 summers can be computed as an estimate of the temperature of the warmest 5% of all summers in the control climate. The period 2080 to 2099 is then examined, and the fraction of the summers exceeding this warmth determined. This is referred to as the probability of extremely warm summers. The results are tabulated after averaging over models, and similarly for both extremely low and extremely high seasonal precipitation amounts. Values smaller (larger) than 5% indicate a decrease (increase) in the frequency of extremes. This follows the approach in Weisheimer and Palmer (2005) except that this chapter compares each model’s future with its own 20th century to help avoid distortions due to differing biases in the different models. The results are shown in Table 11.1 only when 14 out of the 21 models agree as to the sign of the change in frequency of extremes. For example, in Central North America (CNA), 15% of the summers in 2080 to 2099 in the A1B scenario are projected to be extremely dry, corresponding to a factor of three increase in the frequency of these events. In contrast, in many regions and seasons, the frequency of extreme warmth is 100%, implying that all seasons in 2080 to 2099 are warmer than the warmest season in 1980 to 1999, according to every model in this ensemble.

Box 11.1: Summary of Regional Responses

Box 11.1, Figure 1. Temperature anomalies with respect to 1901 to 1950 for six continental-scale regions for 1906 to 2005 (black line) and as simulated (red envelope) by MMD models incorporating known forcings; and as projected for 2001 to 2100 by MMD models for the A1B scenario (orange envelope). The bars at the end of the orange envelope represent the range of projected changes for 2091 to 2100 for the B1 scenario (blue), the A1B scenario (orange) and the A2 scenario (red). The black line is dashed where observations are present for less than 50% of the area in the decade concerned. More details on the construction of these figures are given in Section 11.1.2. Box 11.1, Figure 2.Robust findings on regional climate change for mean and extreme precipitation, drought, and snow. This regional assessment is based upon AOGCM based studies, Regional Climate Models, statistical downscaling and process understanding. More detail on these findings may be found in the notes below, and their full description, including sources is given in the text. The background map indicates the degree of consistency between AR4 AOGCM simulations (21 simulations used) in the direction of simulated precipitation change. As an introduction to the more detailed regional analysis presented in this chapter, Box 11.1, Figure 1 illustrates how continental-scale warming is projected to evolve in the 21st century using the MMD models. This warming is also put into the context of the observed warming during the 20th century by comparing results from that subset of the models incorporating a representation of all known forcings with the observed evolution (see Section 9.4 for more details). Thus for the six continental regions, the figure displays: 1) the observed time series of the evolution of decadally averaged surface air temperature from 1906 to 2005 as an anomaly from the 1901 to 1950 average; 2) the range of the equivalent anomalies derived from 20th-century simulations by the MMD models that contain a full set of historical forcings; 3) the evolution of the range of this anomaly in MMD-A1B projections between 2000 and 2100; and 4) the range of the projected anomaly for the last decade of the 21st century for the B1, A1B, and A2 scenarios. For the observed part of these graphs, the decadal averages are centred on the decade boundaries (i.e., the last point is for 1996 to 2005), whereas for the future period they are centred on the decade mid-points (i.e., the first point is for 2001 to 2010). The width of the shading and the bars represents the 5 to 95% range of the model results. To construct the ranges, all simulations from the set of models involved were considered inde­pendent realisations of the possible evolution of the climate given the forcings applied. This involved 58 simulations from 14 models for the observed period and 47 simulations from 18 models for the future. Important in this representation is that the models’ estimate of natural climate variability is included and thus the ranges include both the potential mitigating and amplifying effects of variability on the underlying signal. In contrast, the bars representing the range of projected change at the end of the century are constructed from ensemble mean changes from the models and thus provide a measure of the forced response. These bars were constructed from decadal mean anomalies from 21 models using A1B scenario forcings, from the 20 of these models that used the B1 forcings and the 17 that used the A2 forcings. The bars for the B1 and A2 scenarios were scaled to approximate ranges for the full set of models. The scaling factor for B1 was derived from the ratio between its range and the A1B range of the corresponding 20 models. The same procedure was used to obtain the A2 scaling factor. Only 18 models were used to display the ranges of projected temperature evolution as the control simulations for the other 3 had a drift of >0.2°C per century, which precludes clearly defining the decadal anomalies from these models. However, anomalies from all 21 models were included in calculating the bars in order to provide the fullest possible representation of projected changes in the MMD. Comparison of these different representations shows that the main messages from the MMD about pro­jected continental temperature change are insensitive to the choices made. Finally, results are not shown here for Antarctica because the observational record is not long enough to provide the relevant information for the first part of the 20th century. Results of a similar nature to those shown here using the observations that are available are presented in Section 11.8. Box 11.1, Figure 2 serves to illustrate some of the more significant hydrological changes, with the two panels corresponding to DJF and JJA. The backdrop to these figures is the fraction of the AOGCMs (out of the 21 considered for this purpose) that predict an increase in mean precipitation in that grid cell (using the A1B scenario and comparing the period 2080 to 2099 with the control period 1980 to 1999). Aspects of this pattern are examined more closely in the separate regional discussions. Robust findings on regional climate change for mean and extreme precipitation, drought and snow are highlighted in the figure with further detail in the accompanying notes. Very likely annual mean increase in most of northern Europe and the Arctic (largest in cold season), Canada, and the North-East USA; and winter (DJF) mean increase in Northern Asia and the Tibetan Plateau. Very likely annual mean decrease in most of the Mediterranean area, and winter (JJA) decrease in southwestern Australia. Likely annual mean increase in tropical and East Africa, Northern Pacific, the northern Indian Ocean, the South Pacific (slight, mainly equatorial regions), the west of the South Island of New Zealand, Antarctica and winter (JJA) increase in Tierra del Fuego. Likely annual mean decrease in and along the southern Andes, summer (DJF) decrease in eastern French Polynesia, winter (JJA) decrease for Southern Africa and in the vicinity of Mauritius, and winter and spring decrease in southern Australia. Likely annual mean decrease in North Africa, northern Sahara, Central America (and in the vicinity of the Greater Antilles in JJA) and in South-West USA. Likely summer (JJA) mean increase in Northern Asia, East Asia, South Asia and most of Southeast Asia, and likely winter (DJF) increase in East Asia. Likely summer (DJF) mean increase in southern Southeast Asia and southeastern South America Likely summer (JJA) mean decrease in Central Asia, Central Europe and Southern Canada. Likely winter (DJF) mean increase in central Europe, and southern Canada Likely increase in extremes of daily precipitation in northern Europe, South Asia, East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Likely increase in risk of drought in Australia and eastern New Zealand; the Mediterranean, central Europe (summer drought); in Central America (boreal spring and dry periods of the annual cycle). Very likely decrease in snow season length and likely to very likely decrease in snow depth in most of Europe and North America.

In each continental section, a figure is provided summarising the temperature and precipitation responses in the MMD-A1B projection for the last two decades of the 21st century. These figures portray a multi-model mean comprising individual models or model ensemble means where ensembles exist. Also shown is the simple statistic of the number of these models that show agreement in the sign of the precipitation change. The annual mean temperature and precipitation responses in each of the 21 separate AOGCMs are provided in Supplementary Material Figures S11.5 to 11.12 and S11.13 to 11.20, respectively.

Recent explorations of multi-model ensemble projections seek to develop probabilistic estimates of uncertainties and are provided in the Supplementary Material Table S11.2. This information is based on the approach of Tebaldi et al. (2004a,b; see also section 11.10.2).

11.1.3 Some Unifying Themes

The basic pattern of the projected warming as described in Chapter 10 is little changed from previous assessments. Examining the spread across the MMD models, temperature projections in many regions are strongly correlated with the global mean projections, with the most sensitive models in global mean temperature often the most sensitive locally. Differing treatments of regional processes and the dynamical interactions between a given region and the rest of the climate system are responsible for some spread. However, a substantial part of the spread in regional temperature projections is due to differences in the sum of the feedbacks that control transient climate sensitivity (see also Chapter 10).

The response of the hydrological cycle is controlled in part by fundamental consequences of warmer temperatures and the increase in water vapour in the atmosphere (Chapter 3). Water is transported horizontally by the atmosphere from regions of moisture divergence (particularly in the subtropics) to regions of convergence. Even if the circulation does not change, these transports will increase due to the increase in water vapour. The consequences of this increased moisture transport can be seen in the global response of precipitation, described in Chapter 10, where, on average, precipitation increases in the intertropical convergence zones, decreases in the subtropics, and increases in subpolar and polar regions. Over North America and Europe, the pattern of subpolar moistening and subtropical drying dominates the 21st-century projections. This pattern is also described in Section 9.5.4, which assesses the extent to which this pattern is visible over land during the 20th century in precipitation observations and model simulations. Regions of large uncertainty often lie near the boundaries between these robust moistening and drying regions, with boundaries placed differently by each model.

High-resolution model results indicate that in regions with strong orographic forcing, some of these large-scale findings can be considerably altered locally. In some cases, this may result in changes in the opposite direction to the more general large-scale behaviour. In addition, large-area and grid-box average projections for precipitation are often very different from local changes within the area (Good and Lowe, 2006). These issues demonstrate the inadequacy of inferring the behaviour at fine scales from that of large-area averages.

Another important theme in the 21st-century projections is the poleward expansion of the subtropical highs, and the poleward displacement of the mid-latitude westerlies and associated storm tracks. This circulation response is often referred to as an enhanced positive phase of the Northern or Southern Annular Mode, or when focusing on the North Atlantic, the positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). In regions without strong orographic forcing, superposition of the tendency towards subtropical drying and poleward expansion of the subtropical highs creates especially robust drying responses at the poleward boundaries of the five subtropical oceanic high centres in the South Indian, South Atlantic, South Pacific, North Atlantic and, less robustly, the North Pacific (where a tendency towards El-Niño like conditions in the Pacific in the models tends to counteract this expansion). Most of the regional projections of strong drying tendencies over land in the 21st century are immediately downstream of these centres (south-western Australia, the Western Cape Provinces of South Africa, the southern Andes, the Mediterranean and Mexico). The robustness of this large-scale circulation signal is discussed in Chapter 10, while Chapters 3, 8 and 9 describe the observed poleward shifts in the late 20th century and the ability of models to simulate these shifts.

The retreats of snow and ice cover are important for local climates. The difficulty of quantifying these effects in regions of substantial topographic relief is a significant limitation of global models (see Section 11.4.3.2, Box 11.3) and is improved with dynamical and statistical downscaling. The drying effect of an earlier spring snowmelt and, more generally, the earlier reduction in soil moisture (Manabe and Wetherald, 1987) is a continuing theme in discussion of summer continental climates.

The strong interactions between sea surface temperature gradients and tropical rainfall variability provides an important unifying theme for tropical climates. Models can differ in their projections of small changes in tropical ocean temperature gradients and in the simulation of the potentially large shifts in rainfall that are related to these oceanic changes. Chou and Neelin (2004) provide a guide to some of the complexity involved in diagnosing and evaluating hydrological responses in the tropics. With a few exceptions, the spread in projections of hydrological changes is still too large to make strong statements about the future of tropical climates at regional scales (see also Section 10.3). Many AOGCMs project large tropical precipitation changes, so uncertainty as to the regional pattern of these changes should not be taken as evidence that these changes are likely to be small.

Assessments of the regional and sub-regional climate change projections have primarily been based on the AOGCM projections summarised in Table 11.1 and an analysis of the biases in the AOGCM simulations, regional downscaling studies available for some regions with either physical or statistical models or both, and reference to plausible physical mechanisms.

To assist the reader in placing the various regional assessments in a global context, Box 11.1 displays many of the detailed assessments documented in the following regional sections. Likewise, an overview of projected changes in various types of extreme weather statistics is summarised in Table 11.2, which contains information from the assessments within this chapter and from Chapter 10. Thus, the details of the assessment that lead to each individual statement can all be found in either Chapter 10, or the respective regional sections, and links for each statement are identifiable from Table 11.2.

Frequently Asked Question 11.1 Do Projected Changes in Climate Vary from Region to Region?

Climate varies from region to region. This variation is driven by the uneven distribution of solar heating, the individual responses of the atmosphere, oceans and land surface, the interactions between these, and the physical characteristics of the regions. The perturbations of the atmospheric constituents that lead to global changes affect certain aspects of these complex interactions. Some human-induced factors that affect climate (‘forcings’) are global in nature, while others differ from one region to another. For example, carbon dioxide, which causes warming, is distributed evenly around the globe, regardless of where the emissions originate, whereas sulphate aerosols (small particles) that offset some of the warming tend to be regional in their distribution. Furthermore, the response to forcings is partly governed by feedback processes that may operate in different regions from those in which the forcing is greatest. Thus, the projected changes in climate will also vary from region to region. FAQ 11.1, Figure 1. Blue and green areas on the map are by the end of the century projected to experience increases in precipitation, while areas in yellow and pink are projected to have decreases. The top panel shows projections for the period covering December, January and February, while the bottom panel shows projections for the period covering June, July and August. (Source: IPCC 2007) Latitude is a good starting point for considering how changes in climate will affect a region. For example, while warming is expected everywhere on Earth, the amount