An intercomparison of three regional climate models (RCMs) (PRECIS-HadRM3P, RCA4, and RegCM4) was performed over the Coordinated Regional Dynamical Experiment (CORDEX)-Central America, Caribbean, and Mexico (CAM) domain to determine their ability to reproduce observed temperature and precipitation trends during 1980-2010. Particular emphasis was given to the North American monsoon (NAM) and the mid-summer drought (MSD) regions. The three RCMs show negative (positive) temperature (precipitation) biases over the mountains, where observations have more problems due to poor data coverage. Observations from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) and ERA-Interim show a generalized warming over the domain. The most significant warming trend (>= 0.34 degrees C/decade) is observed in the NAM, which is moderately captured by the three RCMs, but with less intensity; each decade from 1970 to 2016 has become warmer than the previous ones, especially during the summer (mean and extremes); this warming appears partially related to the positive Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (+AMO). CRU, GPCP, and CHIRPS show significant decreases of precipitation (less than -15%/decade) in parts of the southwest United States and northwestern Mexico, including the NAM, and a positive trend (5-10%/decade) in June-September in eastern Mexico, the MSD region, and northern South America, but longer trends (1950-2017) are not statistically significant. RCMs are able to moderately simulate some of the recent trends, especially in winter. In spite of their mean biases, the RCMs are able to adequately simulate inter-annual and seasonal variations. Wet (warm) periods in regions affected by the MSD are significantly correlated with the +AMO and La Nina events (+AMO and El Nino). Summer precipitation trends from GPCP show opposite signs to those of CRU and CHIRPS over the Mexican coasts of the southern Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Cuba, possibly due to data limitations and differences in grid resolutions.

The southern Mexico and Central America (SMCA) region shows a dominant well-defined precipitation annual cycle. The rainy season usually begins in May and ends in October, with a relatively dry period in July and August known as the mid-summer drought (MSD); notable exceptions are the Caribbean coast of Honduras and Costa Rica. This MSD phenomenon is expected to be affected as the SMCA experiences an enhanced differential warming between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans (PO-AO) towards the end of the 21st century. Previous studies have suggested that this differential warming will induce a strengthening of the westward Caribbean low-level jet (CLLJ) and that this heightened CLLJ will shift precipitation westwards, falling on the PO instead that within the SMCA region causing a severe drought. In this work we examine this scenario with a new model, the Rossby Center Regional Climate Model (RCA4), for the COordinated Regional climate Downscaling EXperiment (CORDEX) Central America domain, forced with different general circulation models (GCMs) and for different representative concentration paths (RCPs). We consider 25-year periods as "present conditions" (1981-2005) and "future scenario" (2071-2095), focusing on the "extended summer" season (May-October). Results suggest that in the future the spatial extension of the MSD will decrease and that in certain areas the MSD will be more intense but less frequent compared to present conditions. Also, the oceanic differential warming, the intensification of the CLLJ, and the reduction in regional precipitation in the future scenario, suggested by previous works, were verified in this study.