Dowdy et al. (2025) Compound weather systems of cyclones, fronts and thunderstorms in global reanalysis

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Environmental Research Letters
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-27
• Authors: Andrew Dowdy, Jennifer L. Catto, Hongsheng Wang
• DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ae2527

Research Groups

Not explicitly mentioned in the abstract.

Short Summary

This study globally examines the climatology and long-term trends of compound weather systems (cyclones, fronts, thunderstorms) using environmental diagnostics applied to global reanalysis data from 1979 to 2020, revealing distinct spatial patterns and increasing thunderstorm-related systems in certain regions.

Objective

• To examine compound weather systems based on environmental diagnostics of cyclones, fronts, and thunderstorms using global reanalysis data for the first time over multiple decades.
• To map the occurrence frequencies for each type of compound weather system from 1979 to 2020.
• To identify long-term trends in the occurrence of these compound weather systems globally.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global (covering high-latitude ocean regions, midlatitude land regions, midlatitude east coasts, and adjacent maritime regions of continents, with specific focus around 35° S and 35° N, Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and tropical land regions).
• Temporal Scale: 42 years (1979 to 2020).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Environmental diagnostics for cyclones, fronts, and thunderstorms.
• Data sources: Global reanalysis data.

Main Results

• Double weather systems: The cyclone and front combination predominantly occurs in high-latitude ocean regions. The cyclone and thunderstorm combination, as well as the front and thunderstorm combination, mostly occur in midlatitude land regions.
• Triple weather systems (cyclone, front, and thunderstorm combination) are rare but tend to occur near the midlatitude east coast and adjacent maritime regions of each continent.
• Thunderstorm-related compound weather systems show occurrence frequency maxima around 35° S and 35° N for ocean regions, with larger frequencies in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern Hemisphere. For land regions, these frequencies are smaller in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern Hemisphere.
• Long-term trends indicate an increase in thunderstorm-related compound systems in some tropical land regions and midlatitude locations near the east coast of each continent, alongside changes in the Southern Hemisphere extratropics consistent with poleward cyclone movement.

Contributions

• Presents the first global examination of compound weather systems (cyclones, fronts, and thunderstorms) based on environmental diagnostics applied to multiple decades of global reanalysis data.
• Provides a comprehensive dataset and methodology for understanding the climatology and trends of these complex systems.
• Offers insights into the spatial distribution and long-term changes of various compound weather system types, which can be valuable for future studies on hazardous weather phenomena like rain, wind, and ocean waves.

Funding

Not explicitly mentioned in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Dowdy2025Compound,
  author = {Dowdy, Andrew and Catto, Jennifer L. and Wang, Hongsheng},
  title = {Compound weather systems of cyclones, fronts and thunderstorms in global reanalysis},
  journal = {Environmental Research Letters},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1088/1748-9326/ae2527},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae2527}
}