Reconstructing the 20th century high-resolution climate of the southeastern United States

We dynamically downscale the 20th Century Reanalysis (20CR) to a 10‐km grid resolution from 1901 to 2008 over the southeastern United States and the Gulf of Mexico using the Regional Spectral Model. The downscaled data set, which we call theFlorida Climate Institute‐Florida State University Land‐Atmosphere Reanalysis for theSoutheastern United States at 10‐km resolution (FLAReS1.0), will facilitate the study of the effects of low‐frequency climate variability and major historical climate events on local hydrology and agriculture. To determine the suitability of the FLAReS1.0 downscaled data set for any subsequent applied climate studies, we compare the annual, seasonal, and diurnal variability of temperature and precipitation in the model to various observation data sets. In addition, we examine the model's depiction of several meteorological phenomena that affect the climate of the region, including extreme cold waves, summer sea breezes and associated convective activity, tropical cyclone landfalls, and midlatitude frontal systems. Our results show that temperature and precipitation variability are well‐represented by FLAReS1.0 on most time scales, although systematic biases do exist in the data. FLAReS1.0 accurately portrays some of the major weather phenomena in the region, but the severity of extreme weather events is generally underestimated. The high resolution of FLAReS1.0 makes it more suitable for local climate studies than the coarser 20CR. Key Points The 20th century reanalysis is downscaled over the southeast United States The 10‐km grid of the downscaled data can resolve mesoscale features The downscaled reanalysis data is validated via comparison with observations