Co-occurring Cold Extremes in North America and Unusually Warm Weather in Europe

Sammanfattning: In this project, we identified and examined the 50 coldest extreme temperature eventsin North America (CENA) and the 50 warmest extreme temperature events insouthwestern Europe (WEEU) during the winter seasons from 1948 to 2023. For theanalysis, we utilized daily NCEP-NCAR reanalysis data for temperature, sea levelpressure (SLP), and 500hPa geopotential height (Z500). Our main objective was toinvestigate the co-occurrence of CENA-WEEU events. To deepen our understandingof the recurrence of these events and their relationship with large-scale atmosphericpatterns and drivers, we examined the SLP and Z500 for the selected extreme events.The results revealed clear indications of an interconnection between CENA andWEEU. During the CENA, above-normal temperatures were observed over Europe,while negative temperature anomalies affected the eastern USA during the WEEU.This co-occurrence was further supported by the identification of seven CENA-WEEUextremes that occurred almost simultaneously. The findings regarding the large-scaleatmospheric drivers of these extremes align with previous studies. The CENAappears to be driven by an anomalous high ridge over the Gulf of Alaska and anortherly flow over North America, while the WEEU seems to be influenced by astrong, zonal and southerly shifted flow across the North Atlantic, associated with adeep trough over the British Isles and a ridge over the Mediterranean basin. Acommon feature of CENA-WEEU events is the presence of a negative North AtlanticOscillation (NAO)-like atmospheric pattern over the Atlantic Ocean prior to theiroccurrence.Despite the significant similarities between these events, some disparities relatedto the atmospheric flow and the magnitude of temperature anomalies in the twocontinents suggest the need for further investigation to enhance our understanding ofthe co-occurrence of CENA-WEEU events.