Australian Synoptic Weather Types

Abstract

Synoptic weather typing is a common technique for categorizing regional circulation patterns over a region. Defined and commonly used sets of synoptic weather types (SWTs) have the potential to simplify the analysis and interpretation of the regional circulation on the weather time and spatial scales and create a common language between the often segregated weather and climate research communities. However, circulation classifications are potentially complicated over Australia owing to its position in both the tropics and extratropics. Here we present a set of 30 SWTs over Australia by k means clustering the 850 hPa wind field in the ERA5 data set. We show that the Australian SWTs represent recognizable weather patterns over the continent throughout the year. Importantly, the SWTs capture features in the extratropics together with characteristics associated with the tropical monsoon. An initial analysis of the relationship of the SWTs with the modes of climate variability, high impact weather and renewable energy related variables showing the utility of the SWTs in a wide range of applications across disciplines within earth system sciences and beyond.