Winter atmospheric circulation and river discharge in northwest Europe

More frequent western atmospheric circulation over Europe results in increased precipitation in winter, and could result in increasing river discharges. We made a quantitative assessment of the impact of variation in atmospheric circulation, defined by the frequency of western circulation in the Großwetterlagen classification system and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index, on variation in basin-average precipitation and winter discharges (December-February) of eleven large river basins that drain northwest Europe. Annual winter discharges amounts are highly correlated among these rivers (up to