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The article examines the transition of 2014 Hurricane Gonzalo to an extratropical storm in Europe. Topics covered include unusually long track of Gonzalo, interaction of extratropical transition extratropical low pressure systems or upper-level troughs and the findings that despite its strength Gonzalo was within the historical range of transforming storms.

A study has been undertaken to analyze the behavior of record high and low values of temperature since the early 1950s for 30 locations spread across Europe. When establishing the ratios of the number of record Tmax to record Tmin values in each year, it is seen that there is a sharp increase in these ratios in the most recent decade. This seems to be an apparent paradox in view of the slow-down in atmospheric temperatures that has been observed since the early 2000s at both the hemispheric and European scales, but closer analysis suggests that the relationship between the record high:low ratios and mean annual temperatures is not linear but rather a square relationship. It is suggested that the record high to record low ratios in both the Mediterranean region and beyond 60° latitude north, observed in the most recent decade, may be related to an amplification of low-level atmospheric temperatures resulting from shorter snow seasons in the north and enhanced summer dryness in the south. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Regional Climate Models (RCMs) nested into Global Climate Models (GCMs) are expected to improve the regional climate change scenarios for the European subregions. This paper discusses the RCM experiments for the end of the 21st century using the model Providing REgional Climates for Impact Studies (PRECIS) for the Carpathian Basin. Expected future changes in mean values, distributions and empirical probabilities are analysed for the period 2071?2100 (compared to 1961?1990, as a reference period). Significant warming and annual drying is projected, together with substantial changes in the distribution of daily mean temperature and monthly mean precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Agricultural management of grasslands results in sequestration and emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs, particularly CO2, N2O and CH4). Here, we used a process-based model (DNDC) to estimate the fluxes of the major GHGs from grasslands at 0.5° resolution across Europe, and combined these to produce a spatially explicit estimate of the total global warming potential (GWP, expressed in CO2 equivalents). The DNDC model [Li, C., Frolking, S., Crocker, G.J., Grace, P.R., Klir, J., Korchens, M., Poulton, P.R., 1997. Simulating trends in soil organic carbon in long-term experiments using the DNDC model. Geoderma 81, 45–60] simulates carbon and nitrogen cycling in agro-ecosystems at a sub-daily time step and consists of four interacting submodels: soil and climate (including water flow and leaching), plant growth, decomposition, and denitrification. Input data sets for grassland area, climate, nitrogen deposition, and soil properties were collated. The typical current grassland management regime was established for ten biogeographical regions on the basis of questionnaires sent to national experts, and used to derive model input data. A 20-year simulation was carried out using DNDC for each site. Simple estimates of methane emissions from grazing livestock were made according to the IPCC Tier 1 method. Most grassland areas are net sources for GHGs in terms of total global warming potential—the beneficial effect of sequestering carbon in soil is outweighed by the emissions of N2O from soil and (predominantly) CH4 emissions from livestock. The net effect of European grasslands on GWP (emission of 23TgCyear−1) corresponds to a 2.5% increase on the EU-15 fossil fuel CO2 emissions (907TgCyear−1). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]