Characterization of European wind speed variability using weather regimes

Abstract

The aim of this paper is threefold. Firstly, to present a representative set of large-scale weather regimes for each month of the year over the Euro-Atlantic region and compare them amongst three commonly employed global reanalyses. Secondly, to measure the impact of the weather regimes on near-surface wind speed variability. Lastly, to validate the regime’s ability to reconstruct monthly wind speed anomalies. Wind speed reconstruction provides critical information on the role of weather regimes as source of predictability of wind speed, by identifying areas where wind is poorly or highly influenced by weather regimes as a whole. Conclusions are extracted about the adequacy of weather regimes to characterize local wind speed variability over Europe.