Global Analysis of Compound Precipitation, Wind and Wave Extremes and their Relationship with Cyclones, Fronts and Thunderstorms
Abstract
Extreme precipitation, winds, and wave heights are important hazards that, when occurring simultaneously, can cause severe socioeconomic impacts. Understanding the occurrence of such compound extremes and the responsible physical mechanisms will lead to better preparedness for the impacts of extreme events throughout the world, and improve disaster risk reduction.
Using ERA-Interim reanalysis data we investigate the joint occurrence of extreme precipitation, winds, and waves, including their global distribution and seasonal variation. To investigate the physical mechanisms, we have applied objective cyclone and front identification methods to reanalysis data, and used a global dataset of lightning strikes, to systematically examine different combinations of cyclone, front and thunderstorm events. These phenomena are known to cause extreme weather in various regions throughout the world. The frequency of compound extremes associated with the different storm types, as well as the probability of experiencing a compound event given each storm type is quantified. This method allows a number of novel concepts to be explored, with results showing that the highest risk of extremes occurs for a type of "triple storm" event characterised by the simultaneous occurrence of a cyclone, front and thunderstorm. The importance of these phenomena and their combinations for producing compound hazards has been examined, as well as the influence of large-scale climate variability on their occurrence.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMNH33D1043C
- Keywords:
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- 4306 Multihazards;
- NATURAL HAZARDSDE: 4313 Extreme events;
- NATURAL HAZARDSDE: 4328 Risk;
- NATURAL HAZARDSDE: 4333 Disaster risk analysis and assessment;
- NATURAL HAZARDS