학술논문

Large-scale dynamics moderate impact-relevant changes to organised convective storms
Document Type
Original Paper
Source
Communications Earth & Environment. 4(1)
Subject
Language
English
ISSN
2662-4435
Abstract
Larger organised convective storms (mesoscale-convective systems) can lead to major flood events in Europe. Here we assess end-of-century changes to their characteristics in two convection-permitting climate simulations from the UK Met Office and ETH-Zürich that both use the high Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 scenario but different approaches to represent atmospheric changes with global warming and different models. The UK Met Office projections indicate more frequent, smaller, and slower-moving storms, while ETH-Zürich projections show fewer, larger, and faster-moving storms. However, both simulations show increases to peak precipitation intensity, total precipitation volume, and temporal clustering, suggesting increasing risks from mesoscale-convective systems in the future. Importantly, the largest storms that pose increased flood risks are projected to increase in frequency and intensity. These results highlight that understanding large-scale dynamical drivers as well as the thermodynamical response of storms is essential for accurate projections of changes to storm hazards, needed for future climate adaptation.
Two convection-permitting climate models project similar increases in peak rainfall intensities from mesoscale convective storms across Europe by 2100, but project contrasting changes to storm frequency, size, and speed due to differences in the representation of dynamical responses to global warming.