Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Assessment Of Regional Climate Model Simulation Estimates Over The Northeast United States, M. A. Rawlins, Raymond S. Bradley, H. F. Diaz

Raymond S Bradley

Given the coarse scales of coupled atmosphere-ocean global climate models, regional climate models (RCMs) are increasingly relied upon for studies at scales appropriate for many impacts studies. We use outputs from an ensemble of RCMs participating in the North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP) to investigate potential changes in seasonal air temperature and precipitation between present (1971–2000) and future (2041–2070) time periods across the northeast United States. The models show a consistent modest cold bias each season and are wetter than observations in winter, spring, and summer. Agreement in spatial variability and pattern correlation is good for air …