Climate analysis & attribution
Spring Regional Sea Surface Temperatures as a Precursor of European Summer Heatwaves
In one sentence. Explainable neural network on 100 MPI Grand Ensemble members identifies spring tripolar North Atlantic SST patterns as precursors of European summer heatwaves.
Abstract
Abstract Different spring and early summer North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) have been shown to precede recent European summer heatwaves (EuSHWs). So far, the limited number of observed events associated with several physical mechanisms has prevented a robust identification of SSTAs as precursors. Here, we extend beyond previous studies by combining 100 historical simulations (1850–2005) of the MPI Grand‐Ensemble with an explainable neural‐network method. We find that the spring tripolar North Atlantic pattern with positive SSTAs in the Subtropical Gyre is a precursor of EuSHWs. In addition, positive SSTAs west of the Iberian Peninsula, and in the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea relate to distinct early summer soil moisture anomaly patterns and are precursors of western and southeastern EuSHWs, respectively. While the phase of the tripolar North Atlantic pattern indicates whether a EuSHW might emerge, regional SSTAs indicate the spatial characteristics of EuSHWs.
Labels
- Topic
- Climate analysis & attribution, Extremes & hazards, Explainability, uncertainty & physics
- Type
- Application study
- Method
- Other
- Time scale
- Seasonal to annual
- Domain
- Regional
- Data
- CMIP / climate model output
- Status
- Research
- Identifiers
- DOI:10.1029/2022gl100727 OpenAlex:W4317397246
- Added
- 2026-10-22
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