Local ?¹⁸O and ?²H variability in UK rainfall

M. D. Jones (1) , M. J. Leng (1, 2) , C. Arrowsmith (2) , C. Deuchars (3) , J. Hodgson (4) , T. Dawson (5)

1 School of Geography
2 NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory
3 Waterways Science Group
4 BGS - British Geological Survey
5 Meteorological Office

Rainfall collected twice weekly from 3 nearby UK stations between November 2004 and October 2006 allows local differences in ?¹⁸O and ?²H to be observed. Local gradients in ?¹⁸O_p appear to be of the same order of magnitude as national trends, suggesting the spatial ?¹⁸O_p picture is more complicated than the one currently available from sparse GNIP coverage. Comparing data from this study with previous work we find that average ?¹⁸O_p has changed in the UK over the last 20 years concurrent with an average temperature increase although inter-annual controls on the values remain seasonal temperature and the amount of precipitation in each rain event. Climate-isotope relationships observed from the weekly data do not explain the observed decadal scale shifts.

Domaines: Interfaces continentales, environnement; Océan, Atmosphère; Sciences de la Terre

M. D. Jones, M. J. Leng, C. Arrowsmith, C. Deuchars, J. Hodgson, et al.. Local ?¹⁸O and ?²H variability in UK rainfall. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 2007, 4 (4), pp.2403-2423. ⟨hal-00298865⟩