Synoptic-climatological applicability of circulation classifications from the COST733 collection: First results

A large number of classifications of circulation patterns, collected within the COST733 Action, have been evaluated as to their synoptic-climatological applicability, defined here as the ability to stratify daily maximum and minimum temperature at a network of stations across Europe. The methods vary widely in their synoptic-climatological applicability. The number of types plays an important role. After the effects of varied number of types is eliminated, several classification methods emerge that have a good ability to stratify surface temperature. They include especially various variants of the Hess–Brezowsky catalogue and the Lamb classification. The synoptic-climatological performance of many classifications differs between winter and summer; there are also considerable differences between a large and small spatial domain, on which the classifications are defined.