EMULATE Deliverable D11: Assessment of time varying influence of SST and atmospheric circulation on European surface temperature and precipitation

Winter temperatures and precipitation amounts in Europe are known to be quite strongly influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and may also be affected by other circulation and sea-surface temperature (SST) patterns. Summer precipitation totals in Europe as a whole are less influenced by the summer NAO (though the UK is an exception) but show marked multi decadal variability and are related to global-scale SST and atmospheric circulation variability. Such observed links have important implications for predictability. So a clear goal of EMULATE has been to document these relationships, using new and extended datasets of daily pressure, temperature and precipitation, in addition to the existing, high quality SST analysis, HadISST [Rayner et al., 2003].