CL4.4

The dynamics of the Earth’s climate shows seasonally distinct and different patterns. These patterns are more evident in the mid-to-high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, where the alternation of oceans and land masses affects both the short and long-term (re)distribution of energy, resulting in complex weather and climate patterns on time scales ranging from days to millennia. Different factors, processes, and mechanisms are prominent during summers and winters. Consequently, the weather and climate patterns differ between both seasons, so that the dynamics of a summer climate are markedly different to winter ones. The most recent examples are the February 2021 North American cold spell, and, on a millennial time scale, the markedly different summer and winter climate of the early-to-mid Holocene.
With the winter months being the most active from a dynamic point of view and the perturbations of the large-scale atmospheric circulation can reach very high amplitudes, this session will focus on the dynamics of winter climate variability and trends in the Northern Hemisphere. We invite contributions that discuss winter climate and weather patterns on time scales ranging from days to millennia during the Late Quaternary, with focus on the Last Glacial Maximum-present time-frame.
The aim is to build a narrative linking short-term weather variability to long-term climate change, by discussing factors, forcing, processes and mechanisms. The main topics we wish to address are: 1) which are the large-scale/regional processes governing present-day winter climate variability in the Northern Hemisphere? 2) how diverse were the spatial dynamics of winter climate during the Holocene? 3) what were the temporal dynamics of winter climate variability during the post-LGM period; 4) what was the societal response to changing winter climate conditions during the Holocene.