Extreme dry and wet spells face changes in their duration and timing

Bibliographic Data

ID15544281
AuthorsKorbinian Breinl (0000-0003-0489-4526, TU Wien, corresponding author), Giuliano Di Baldassarre (0000-0002-8180-4996, Uppsala University), Maurizio Mazzoleni (0000-0002-0913-9370, Uppsala University), David Lun (0000-0003-0382-3371, TU Wien), Giambattista Vico (0000-0002-7849-2653, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)
Year2020
Volume15
Issue7
Pages074040-074040
Publication date2020-03-05
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironmental Research Letters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326
PublisherIOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1088/1748-9326/ab7d05
OpenAlexW3009535385
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited57

Dry spells are sequences of days without precipitation. They can have negative implications for societies, including water security and agriculture. For example, changes in their duration and within-year timing can pose a threat to food production and wildfire risk. Conversely, wet spells are sequences of days with precipitation above a certain threshold, and changes in their duration and within-year timing can impact agriculture, flooding or the prevalence of water-related vector-borne diseases. Here we assess changes in the duration and within-year timing of extreme dry and wet spells over 60 years (1958–2017) using a consistent global land surface precipitation dataset of 5093 rain gauge locations. The dataset allowed for detailed spatial analyses of the United States, Europe and Australia. While many locations exhibit statistically significant changes in the duration of extreme dry and wet spells, the changes in the within-year timing are less often significant. Our results show consistencies with observations and projections from state-of-the-art climate and water resources research. In addition, we provide new insights regarding trends in the timing of extreme dry and wet spells, an aspect being equally important for possible future implications of extremes in a changing climate, which has not yet received the same level of attention and is characterized by larger uncertainty

Agriculture · Climate change · Climatology · Duration (music · Flooding (psychology · Geography · Meteorology · Precipitation · Climate change impacts on agriculture · Climate variability and models · Environmental Science · Hydrology and Drought Analysis · Ecology · Geology