Climate change is associated with the modification of the polar jet stream, cyclone
tracks and corresponding circulation patterns over midlatitudes. To apply these synoptic
changes on regional climate, the changing sensitivity of a specific location to different
pressure centre regions must be studied. An automated, objective circulation pattern
detection method was developed to investigate the evolution of cyclonic and anticyclonic
influence at any specific point within the European domain. The algorithm was used
to assign each location to influencing low‐ or high‐pressure centres within the domain.
Pressure centre displacements and the frequency redistribution among different centres
were studied for each location. The 180‐year (January 1836–December 2015) mean sea
level pressure dataset on the European domain with a 0.703° × 0.702° spatial and daily
temporal resolution was obtained from NOAA 20th Century Reanalysis project. The presented
method can apply the continental‐scale changes to specific locations. A significant
increase of anticyclonic influence was found in southern and central Europe, in line
with the northward displacement of Atlantic cyclones. Hundred and eighty year (180‐year)
change of the number of days with anticyclonic versus cyclonic influence was found
to be between +10% and 15% in the Mediterranean and +2% and 10% in most of Europe.
The increasing anticyclonic influence in central Europe was strongest in the spring
and the winter and was most attributable to the eastern European anticyclone. Results
highlight the importance of research on the dynamical climate response of anticyclonic
pressure systems.
