EGU22-11304, updated on 10 Jan 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11304
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Elevational patterns of climate change – an assessment of temperature and precipitation for the mountain regions of the world

Wolfgang Schöner1, Nicholas Pepin2, Enrico Arnone3, Andreas Gobiet4, Klaus Haslinger4, Sven Kotlarski5, Claudia Notarnicola6, Elisa Palazzi3, Petra Seibert7, Stefano Serafin8, Silvia Terzago3, James M. Thornton9, Mathias Vuille10, and Carolina Adler9
Wolfgang Schöner et al.
  • 1Graz, Geography and Regional Science, Graz, Austria (wolfgang.schoener@uni-graz.at)
  • 2School of Environment, Geography and Geoscience, University of Portsmouth, U.K.
  • 3National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR-ISAC), Torino, Italy
  • 4Climate Research Department, Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG), Vienna, Austria
  • 5Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, Meteo Swiss, Zurich, Switzerland
  • 6EURAC Institute for Earth Observation, Bolzano, Italy
  • 7Institute of Meteorology and Climatology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria
  • 8Dept of Meteorology and Geophysics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • 9Mountain Research Initiative, University of Bern, Switzerland
  • 10Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University at Albany, Albany, NY, USA

Mountains and high elevation regions are often viewed as climate change “hotspots” which are responding particularly rapid to global climate forcing and may anticipate or amplify what is occurring elsewhere. Accelerating mountain climate change has widespread impacts ranging from an enhanced loss of snow and ice, through impacts on the hydrological regimes, to changes in ecological zonation as species move uphill. We examine global evidence for elevation contrasts in temperature trends (also known as elevation-dependent warming, EDW) and precipitation changes. We performed a meta-analysis of existing studies, which used in-situ station temperature and precipitation data from mountain regions as reported by the IPCC, and we analysed global gridded datasets (observations, reanalyses and model hindcasts). In both cases, we examined the elevation dependency of temperature and precipitation changes since 1900. The meta-analysis indicates that studies using pairs of station groups (in mountains and nearby low elevation areas) show a tendency towards enhanced warming at higher elevations. However, when all past studies of observations are combined globally, no systematic difference in warming rates for high vs. low elevation groups is found. Thus, on a global scale, local and regional features may obscure EDW. Precipitation changes in mountain areas based on station data are inconsistent, and a global elevational gradient in precipitation trends does not emerge. Gridded datasets (CRU, GISTEMP, GPCC, ERA5, CMIP5) show increased warming rates at higher elevations in specific regions (e.g. Andes for CMIP5 and Greater Alpine Region for ERA5), but again, there is no universal amplification of warming in mountains. The agreement between datasets is weak for temperature. Changes in precipitation show a tendency towards weaker (stronger) increase at higher (lower) elevations, especially in mid-latitudes. This means that the orographic effect may be weakening on a global scale, which may be a result of both thermodynamics and changes in atmospheric circulation.

How to cite: Schöner, W., Pepin, N., Arnone, E., Gobiet, A., Haslinger, K., Kotlarski, S., Notarnicola, C., Palazzi, E., Seibert, P., Serafin, S., Terzago, S., Thornton, J. M., Vuille, M., and Adler, C.: Elevational patterns of climate change – an assessment of temperature and precipitation for the mountain regions of the world, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-11304, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-11304, 2022.