Africa and the Paris Agreement

The African continent is one of the most vulnerable regions to future climate change. Research now demonstrates that constraining anthropogenic warming to 1.5 °C instead of 2 °C will significantly lower the risk of heatwaves to inhabitants.http://www.nature.com/nclimate2018-11-01hj2018Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog

Historical rainfall trends in South Africa : 1921–2015

The aim of this study is to update the analysis of historical rainfall trends with reference to the work from previous studies, through optimizing the highest spatial resolution with the longest possible period of analysis, i.e., 1921–2015. Two interlinked datasets, namely the district rainfall and individual rainfall stations datasets were used for the trend analyses, namely, daily time series of 60 individual rainfall stations and the daily district rainfall of 88 of 94 rainfall districts in South Africa. The extreme precipitation indices defined by the World Meteorological Organization Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices were applied. In general, the results show an increase in rainfall for most rainfall stations in the southern interior of South Africa, and indications of decreases in rainfall in the far northern and north-eastern parts. The increase in the annual rainfall in the south is reflected in the seasonal trends, where summer rainfall shows a similar increase, but also extends into the central interior. For other seasons, most of the country shows no significant historical trends in annual total rainfall. From the extreme rainfall analyses, an increase in daily rainfall extremes in the southern to western interior is apparent. Also, most of the country experienced increases in the intensity of daily rainfall, which confirms global results in general. Decreases in rainfall from wet spells were noted in most places over the east and north-east, while the southern and eastern parts along the escarpment experienced shorter annual dry spells. This study improves on previous studies in the region by more than doubling the analysis period, largely eliminating the influence that decadal-scale cycles might have on analyses over shorter periods. However, some differences in the trend results compared to previous studies are apparent, e.g., less pronounced drying in the east and the previously observed increase in rainfall in the western and southern interior not extending as far as the south-western Cape. The observed trends broadly confirm those of projected changes in summer rainfall, i.e., an increase in the west and decrease in the east.http://www.wrc.org.zaam2017Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog

Surface temperature trends from homogenized time series in South Africa : 1931-2015

Previous assessments of historical trends of measured surface temperature in South Africa have all shown a general upward trend, in both mean and extreme values, over recent decades. In addition, some regional differences in trends have been identified. Most of these studies focused on the period from about 1961 up to the last year that could be included before publication, as only climate stations situated in the same position for the entire analysis period were analysed. A data homogenisation procedure enabled the combination of time series of stations from which trend analysis could be applied, extending the common analysis period for this study back to around 1931. The trend results, based on the WMO ETCCDI indices, continue to show the general warming trend shown in previous analyses, with a general increase in extreme warm events, and a general decrease in extreme cold events across South Africa. The analysis of seasonal trends show that, while there are noteworthy differences on a regional basis, austral summer shows on average the strongest warming, followed by autumn, winter and spring. The central interior, which exhibited significant cooling in previous analyses, now shows non-significant or similar trends when compared to the other parts of South Africa. There is no countrywide acceleration in the warming trends, but some regional consistencies in the temporal changes in trends could be determined, i.e. increases in trends in the central interior and decreases in trends along most of the coastal region.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1097-00882018-04-30hb2017Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog

Development of an updated fundamental basic wind speed map for SANS 10160-3

This paper evaluates the need for updating the strong wind climate stipulations of South Africa for the design of structures in accordance with SANS 10160-3:2010, as based on the latest information presented by Kruger et al (2013a; 2013b). The primary objective is to provide the geographic distribution of the characteristic gust wind speed by means of the fundamental value of the basic wind speed, stipulated as vb,0 in SANS 10160-3. A reassessment of previously published information is made to incorporate additional wind speed modelling results and to investigate identified anomalies. The format of presentation, based on local municipal districts, is subsequently motivated, assessed and implemented. In order to provide for situations requiring the consideration of the dynamic effects of wind loading, similar information on characteristic hourly mean wind speed is provided. It is concluded that the presentation of wind speed on a district basis provides an effective balance between the spatial resolution of the available information and its use in operational standardised design.http://www.journals.co.za/ej/ejour_civileng.htmlam2018Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog

Identifying biologically meaningful hot-weather events using threshold temperatures that affect life-history

Increases in the frequency, duration and intensity of heat waves are frequently evoked in climate change predictions. However, there is no universal definition of a heat wave. Recent, intense hot weather events have caused mass mortalities of birds, bats and even humans, making the definition and prediction of heat wave events that have the potential to impact populations of different species an urgent priority. One possible technique for defining biologically meaningful heat waves is to use threshold temperatures (T thresh ) above which known fitness costs are incurred by species of interest. We set out to test the utility of this technique using T thresh values that, when exceeded, affect aspects of the fitness of two focal southern African bird species: the southern pied babbler Turdiodes bicolor (T thresh = 35.5°C) and the common fiscal Lanius collaris (T thresh = 33°C). We used these T thresh values to analyse trends in the frequency, duration and intensity of heat waves of magnitude relevant to the focal species, as well as the annual number of hot days (maximum air temperature > T thresh ), in north-western South Africa between 1961 and 2010. Using this technique, we were able to show that, while all heat wave indices increased during the study period, most rapid increases for both species were in the annual number of hot days and in the maximum intensity (and therefore intensity variance) of biologically meaningful heat waves. Importantly, we also showed that warming trends were not uniform across the study area and that geographical patterns in warming allowed both areas of high risk and potential climate refugia to be identified. We discuss the implications of the trends we found for our focal species, and the utility of the T thresh technique as a conservation tool

Historical and projected trends in nearsurface temperature indices for 22 locations in South Africa

Motivated by the risks posed by global warming, historical trends and future projections of near-surface temperature in South Africa have been investigated in a number of previous studies. These studies included the assessment of trends in average temperatures as well as extremes. In this study, historical trends in near-surface minimum and maximum temperatures as well as extreme temperature indices in South Africa were critically investigated by comparing quality-controlled station observations with downscaled model projections. Because climate models are the only means of generating future global warming projections, this critical point comparison between observed and downscaled model simulated time series can provide valuable information regarding the interpretation of model-generated projections. Over the historical 1951–2005 period, both observed data and downscaled model projections were compared at 22 point locations in South Africa. An analysis of model projection trends was conducted over the period 2006–2095. The results from the historical analysis show that model outputs tend to simulate the historical trends well for annual means of daily maximum and minimum temperatures. However, noteworthy discrepancies exist in the assessment of temperature extremes. While both the historical model simulations and observations show a general warming trend in the extreme indices, the observational data show appreciably more spatial and temporal variability. On the other hand, model projections for the period 2006–2095 show that for the medium-to-low concentration Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5, the projected decrease in cold nights is not as strong as is the case for the historically observed trends. However, the upward trends in warm nights for both the RCP4.5 and the high concentration RCP8.5 pathways are noticeably stronger than the historically observed trends. For cool days, future projections are comparable to the historically observed trends, but for hot days noticeably higher. Decreases in cold spells and increases in warm spells are expected to continue in future, with relatively strong positive trends on a regional basis. It is shown that projected trends are not expected to be constant into the future, in particular trends generated from the RCP8.5 pathway that show a strong increase in warming towards the end of the projection period. SIGNIFICANCE : • Comparison between the observed and simulated trends emphasises the necessity to assess the reliability of the output of climate models which have a bearing on the credibility of projections. • The limitation of the models to adequately simulate the climate extremes, renders the projections conservative, which is an important result in the light of climate change adaptation.http://www.sajs.co.zaam2019Geography, Geoinformatics and MeteorologySchool of Health Systems and Public Health (SHSPH