Weather and Climate Dynamics
Weather and Climate Dynamics
WCD
Articles | Volume 6, issue 4
Articles | Volume 6, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1643-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1643-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 6, issue 4
Research article
 | 
03 Dec 2025
Research article |  | 03 Dec 2025

Intensifying precipitation over the Southern Ocean challenges reanalysis-based climate estimates – Insights from Macquarie Island's 45-year record

Zhaoyang Kong, Andrew T. Prata, Peter T. May, Ariaan Purich, Yi Huang, and Steven T. Siems

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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse

Peer review completion

AR – Author's response | RR – Referee report | ED – Editor decision | EF – Editorial file upload
AR by Zhaoyang Kong on behalf of the Authors (20 Oct 2025)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (21 Oct 2025) by Tim Woollings
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (23 Oct 2025)
ED: Publish as is (23 Oct 2025) by Tim Woollings
AR by Zhaoyang Kong on behalf of the Authors (28 Oct 2025)  Manuscript 
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Short summary
To investigate why ERA5 (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis v5) does not accurately capture the observed increase in annual precipitation at Macquarie Island during 1979 to 2023, we classify daily synoptic systems using k-means clustering. Find that the increase in mean intensity across all systems is the main contributor to the observed annual precipitation trend and the resulting discrepancy, rather than changes in the frequency. And this increase may also have a substantial impact on the freshwater fluxes over the Southern Ocean.
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