Substantial Cold Bias During Wintertime Cold Extremes in the Southern Cascadia Region in Historical CMIP6 Simulations

Abstract

Global climate models often simulate atmospheric conditions incorrectly due to their coarse grid resolution, flaws in their dynamics, and biases resulting from parameterization schemes. Here we document a bias in the magnitude and extent of minimum temperature extremes in the CMIP6 model ensemble, relative to ERA5. The bias is present in the southern Cascadia region (i.e., Pacific Northwestern United States and southwestern British Columbia, Canada, spanning from the coast to the Rocky Mountains), with some models showing a bias magnitude in excess of −10°C in the first percentile of daily winter minimum temperature. The sea level pressure pattern for these events is similar in CMIP6 models and ERA5, showing high anomalies in the Northeast Pacific that are indicative of an atmospheric blocking pattern and consequently more northerly flow. Though this atmospheric blocking pattern is typically concurrent with cold winter temperatures across much of North America, Rocky and Cascade mountain ranges prevent the cold air from reaching the southern Cascadia region as confirmed by the observations and reanalysis. Our results suggest that the bias in CMIP6 minimum temperatures is a result of unresolved topography in the Rockies and Cascade mountain ranges, such that the terrain does not adequately block cold air advection from reaching the southern Cascadia region.