Vol 44, No 12 (2019)

Some aspects of long-term variability of temperature extremes on the territory of Russia are considered using average daily surface air temperature data from 367 weather stations over the period of 1960-2016. The number of days with extremely high summer temperature has increased monotonously (with strong peaks in some years) in the European part of Russia since the 1980s; in the Asian part of Russia this growth stopped in the early 2000s. The number of cold extremes has decreased. Changes in winter mainly agree with the general warming, but in the Asian part of Russia the warming trend is superimposed by about 40-year oscillations resembling variations in the leading atmospheric circulation modes: the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Scandinavian pattern. The statistics of indices of extremes in the opposite phases of the modes revealed a strong response in winter, which explains qualitatively the features of long-term variations in temperature extremes. A difference in composites between the positive and negative NAO phases is mostly negative for cold extremes and positive for warm ones. The response to the Scandinavian mode is opposite. In summer, the response is generally weak, but in the west of the European part of Russia the heat wave duration is strongly linked to variations in the Scandinavian pattern.

Data on modern climate and environmental changes in Eastern Siberia are compared with the public perception of such changes through cognitive indicators. Observations reveal positive air temperature trends for all seasons, shortening of the cold period, decrease in wintertime daily temperature variations, deeper seasonal thawing of permafrost, and lengthening of the vegetation period. The public perception acknowledges these changes only partly, although they already affect many types of human’s activity. The gap between observational data and the cognitive indicators of climate change complicates the development and implementation of climate adaptation strategies.

The physical mechanisms which led to the explosive consecutive (cascade) cyclogenesis of “the major southern cyclone–the mesocyclone” pair over the Sea of Japan on January 17-21, 2016 are considered. The important role of oceanographic (the thermal state of the northwestern Sea of Japan) and synoptic (the strong cold ultrapolar invasion of Arctic air) factors is demonstrated. The interaction of these factors led to heavy precipitation, storm wind, and intense sea waves. The numerical experiments using the WRF-NMM atmosphere model and various initial conditions for the Sea of Japan surface temperature allowed identifying the driving atmospheric and marine factors needed for the development of cascade cyclogenesis. It is shown that the increased heat accumulation in the sea combined with ultrapolar invasions can initiate the cascade cyclogenesis development. Perhaps, these regional atmospheric and oceanic processes and their interaction response to the climate change of the recent decades.

The review is based on the results of the operation of the total ozone (TO) monitoring system in Russia and adjoining territories that functions in the operational mode at the Central Aerological Observatory. The monitoring system uses data from the national network equipped with M-124 filter ozonometers being under the methodological supervision of the Main Geophysical Observatory. The quality of the system functioning is operationally controlled using OMI satellite equipment observations (NASA, the USA). Basic TO observation data are generalized for each month of the third quarter of 2019 and for the third quarter. Data of routine observations of surface ozone values in the Moscow region and Crimea are also considered.