Progress in detection and projection of climate change in Spain since the 2010 CLIVAR-Spain regional climate change assessment report

Abstract

The Iberian Peninsula region offers a challenging benchmark for climate variability studies for several reasons. It exhibits a wide variety of climatic regimes, ranging from wet Atlantic climates with annual precipitation around 2000 mm, to extensive semi-arid regions with severe hydrological stress, to even cold alpine environments in some isolated areas. This climatic diversity results from its latitudinal location at the northern edge of the subtropics, its complex topography punctuated by several important mountain chains, its peninsular nature, and the presence of two surrounding very different water masses: the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean sea. The climate variety is reflected in large heterogeneities in the land-surface energy and water budgets and related exchanges with the atmosphere. Additionally, extreme events such as prolonged dry periods, heatwaves, heavy convective precipitation and floods are recurrent features. All these factors make comprehensive understanding and modelling of Iberian climate particularly challenging.