Robustness of Future Changes in Local Precipitation Extremes

Abstract Reliable projections of future changes in local precipitation extremes are essential for informing policy decisions regarding mitigation and adaptation to climate change. In this paper, the extent to which the natural variability of the climate affects one’s ability to project the anthropogenically forced component of change in daily precipitation extremes across Europe is examined. A three-member ensemble of the Hadley Centre Regional Climate Model (HadRM3H) is used and a statistical framework is applied to estimate the uncertainty due to the full spectrum of climate variability. In particular, the results and understanding presented here suggest that annual to multidecadal natural variability may contribute significant uncertainty. For this ensemble projection, extreme precipitation changes at the grid-box level are found to be discernible above climate noise over much of northern and central Europe in winter, and parts of northern and southern Europe in summer. The ability to quantify the chan...

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