Trends and regime shifts in climatic conditions and river runoff in Estonia during 1951–2015

Jaagus, Jaak; Sepp, Mait; Tamm, Toomas; Järvet, Arvo; Mõisja, Kiira

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-963-2017

Articles | Volume 8, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-963-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

Multiple drivers for Earth system changes in the Baltic Sea...

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-963-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 8, issue 4

Research article

|

03 Nov 2017

Research article |

| 03 Nov 2017

Trends and regime shifts in climatic conditions and river runoff in Estonia during 1951–2015

Jaak Jaagus, Mait Sepp, Toomas Tamm, Arvo Järvet, and Kiira Mõisja

Data sets

CPC Dataset CPC (Climate Prediction Center), NOAA/National Weather Service http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/data/teledoc/telecontents.shtml

CPC Dataset CPC (Climate Prediction Center), NOAA/National Weather Service http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/monthly.ao.index.b50.current.ascii.table

The Climate Data Guide: Hurrell North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) Index J. Hurrell and National Center for Atmospheric Research https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/hurrell-north-atlantic-oscillation-nao-index-station-based

CRU Dataset Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia https://crudata.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/nao/

Short summary

Trends and regime shifts in climatic and hydrological parameters are analysed in Estonia during 1951–2015. The most important finding was the regime shift in the majority of parameters since the winter 1988/1989. The intensity of westerly circulation described by the NAO and AO indices increased, winter mean air temperature and precipitation also increased, and snow cover duration decreased. Consequently, specific runoff of rivers increased in January, February and March but decreased in April.