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Complex North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) Index signal of historic North Atlantic storm-track changes

Centre for Quaternary Science, School of Science and the Environment, William Morris Building, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK; gex014Kcoventry.ac.uk

K. Hickey

Department of Geography, National University of Ireland, University Road, Galway, Ireland

T. Holt

Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK

L. Elliott

S. Dawson

I. D.L. Foster

Centre for Quaternary Science, School of Science and the Environment, William Morris Building, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK

P. Wadhams

I. Jonsdottir

J. Wilkinson

Polar Marine Science Group, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1ER, UK

J. McKenna

School of Biological and Environmental Studies, University of Ulster, Coleraine Campus, Cromore Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland, UK

N. R. Davis

Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK

D. E. Smith

Centre for Quaternary Science, School of Science and the Environment, William Morris Building, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK

Previous reports have suggested a link between increased storminess in the North Atlantic during recent years with a period of time during which the North Atlantic Oscillation Index has been strongly positive. New analyses of late nineteenth-century gale-day data for meteorological stations in northern Scotland and western Ireland indicate that the relatively high storminess that characterized this period was associated with monthly NAO Index values that rarely exceeded +2 and, on several occasions, were strongly negative. It is speculated that this difference may reflect the influence of an expanded sea-ice cover in the Greenland Sea that caused a considerable southward displacement of the North Atlantic storm track during the late nineteenth century. Such changes imply that the polar atmospheric and oceanic fronts in the North Atlantic were displaced southward during the late nineteenth century.

Key Words: North Atlantic Oscillation • NAO Index • historical evidence • climatic change • historic storms • gale days • sea ice

The Holocene, Vol. 12, No. 3, 363-369 (2002)
DOI: 10.1191/0959683602hl552rr


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