资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

During the summer months, there is a semipermanent trough in the low-level easterlies over the west coast of Australia. This West Coast Trough plays an important role in summer severe weather in western Australia including thunderstorms and severe heat waves. The land-sea contrast is believed to be the driver of the location of this trough. As land masses are warming more quickly than their surrounding oceans, it is timely to readdress the drivers of the location and intensity of this important climatological feature. Using a 20-year regional climate modeling simulation, we show that Australian orography is critical to the accurate representation of the trough in climate models, in contrast to earlier low-resolution studies.

Plain language summary During the summer, the average weather pattern in Western Australia includes a trough near the west coast. For this trough to exist in climate models, they need to include Australian elevation including the plateau in Western Australia. Otherwise, the trough does not exist and summer rainfall is lower.