Abstract
Using a sub-selection of regional climate models at 0.11° (approx 12 km) grid resolution from the EURO-CORDEX ensemble, we investigate how the spatial extent of areas associated with the most intensive daily precipitation events changes as a consequence of global warming. We address this by analysing three different warming levels: 1 °C, 2 °C and 3 °C. We find that not only does the intensity of such events increase, but their size will also change as a function of the warming: larger systems becomes more frequent and larger, while systems of lesser extent are reduced in numbers.
Highlights
Extreme precipitation leading to flooding is undoubtedly one of the most damaging and costly climate hazards (Ahern et al 2005; Knapp et al 2008; Woetmann 2011; Hallegatte et al 2013; Liu et al 2016; Masson-Delmotte et al 2018)
One plausible explanation for the shift of large-size events toward small-to-medium size events is that the EURO-CORDEX simulations have a finer grid mesh, providing a smaller scale information to the interpolated grid when compared to ERA5
We have investigated the changes in size of contiguous precipitation systems related to 20 years most extreme precipitation for different different warming levels using daily precipitation dataset from EURO-CORDEX
Summary
Extreme precipitation leading to flooding is undoubtedly one of the most damaging and costly climate hazards (Ahern et al 2005; Knapp et al 2008; Woetmann 2011; Hallegatte et al 2013; Liu et al 2016; Masson-Delmotte et al 2018). For an extreme precipitation event to become damaging, several aspects have to be considered, e.g. the location; the timing; rural land vs densely populated; dry, wet or frozen grounds; catchment size and topography; tides and storm surges, etc. The mechanisms leading to extreme precipitation and the impact of climate change on such event have been the main interest of many studies
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
