Extreme precipitation in Europe: statistical threshold selection based on climatological criteria

Abstract

In the present study, both parametric (peak over threshold: mean residual life, dispersion index, threshold choice) and non-parametric (percentiles indices 95% and 99%) statistical techniques are employed, aiming at the identification of rainfall thresholds above which a precipitation event can be characterized as extreme. The analysis is based on 45 years (1960–2004) rain gauge daily records from 65 meteorological stations over the European region. According to two climatologically based criteria that were introduced in the study, it was found that a combined peak over threshold methodology has been shown to yield higher threshold values above which extreme precipitation events occur, in comparison to the 95th percentile indices. Overall, concerning northern Europe, it was found that in the majority of the stations, the threshold values vary from 20 to 30 mm, while the results concerning the Mediterranean region are less coherent and the selection of extreme precipitation thresholds differs from region to region. Stations over eastern Mediterranean appear to have thresholds higher than 30 mm, while stations located over the main cyclone trajectories and the cyclogenesis zone of Mediterranean are those with the higher extreme precipitation thresholds (higher than 45 mm).