Observed global changes in sector‐relevant climate extremes indices—an extension to HadEX3
Date
2024
Authors
Dunn, Robert J. H.
Herold, Nicholas
Alexander, Lisa V.
Donat, Markus G.
Allan, Rob
Bador, Margot
Brunet, Manola
Cheng, Vincent
Ibadullah, Wan Maisarah Wan
Ibrahim, Muhammad Khairul Izzat Bin
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Earth and Space Science
Abstract
Global gridded data sets of observed extremes indices underpin assessments of changes in climate extremes. However, similar efforts to enable the assessment of indices relevant to different sectors of society have been missing. Here we present a data set of sector-specific indices, based on daily station data, that extends the HadEX3 data set of climate extremes indices. These additional indices, which can be used singly or in combinations, have been recommended by the World Meteorological Organization and are intended to empower decision makers in different sectors with accurate historical information about how sector-relevant measures of the climate are changing, especially in regions where in situ daily temperature and rainfall data are hard to come by. The annual and/or monthly indices have been interpolated on to a 1.875° × 1.25° longitude-latitude grid for 1901–2018. We show changes in globally-averaged time series of these indices in comparison with reanalysis products. Changes in temperature-based indices are consistent with global scale warming, with days with Tmax > 30°C (TXge30) increasing virtually everywhere with potential impacts on crop fertility. At the other end of the scale, the number of days with Tmin < −2°C (TNltm2) are reducing, decreasing potential damage from frosts. Changes in heat wave characteristics show increases in the number, duration and intensity of these extreme events in most places. The gridded netCDF files and, where possible, the underlying station indices are available from https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadex3 and https://www.climdex.org.
Description
Keywords
UN SDG 13: Climate Action, #journal article, Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC)
Citation
Dunn, R. J. H., Herold, N., Alexander, L. V., Donat, M. G., Allan, R., Bador, M., Brunet, M., Cheng, V., Ibadullah, W. M. W., Ibrahim, M. K. I. B., Kruger, A., Kubota, H., Lippmann, T. J. R., Marengo, J., Mbatha, S., McGree, S., Ngwenya, S., Pabon Caicedo, J. D., Ramos, A., … Zhang, X. (2024). Observed global changes in sector‐relevant climate extremes indices—An extension to HadEX3. Earth and Space Science, 11(4). https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EA003279