Evolution des extrêmes climatiques en France à partir des séries observées

Observed changes in climate extremes in France

Météo-France, Direction de la Climatologie 42 avenue G. Coriolis, F-31057 TOULOUSE CEDEX

Auteur de correspondance : brigitte.dubuisson@meteo.fr

Abstract

The studies previously realized at the Climatology Department of Météo-France allowed characterizing the mean climate change. But one of the major concerns with a potential change in climate is the evolution of extremes. The study presented here is part of the GICC/IMFREX project. In this project, daily reference series were constituted. These series complete the monthly homogenized series already available for climate change study. Climate indices were then calculated on these daily reference series.The indices of temperature show a pronounced warming over the second half of the 20th century. The trends of indices of precipitation are less coherent. They however show evidence of an increase of total precipitation (especially in the north of the country), an increase of summer droughts and a lengthening of rainy spells. No evidence of an increase in heavy precipitation events was found.