Observed Global Changes in Sector-Relevant Climate Extremes Indices—An Extension to HadEX3

Robert J.H. Dunn*, Nicholas Herold, Lisa V. Alexander, Markus G. Donat, Rob Allan, Margot Bador, Manola Brunet, Vincent Cheng, Wan Maisarah Wan Ibadullah, Muhammad Khairul Izzat Bin Ibrahim, Andries Kruger, Hisayuki Kubota, Tanya J.R. Lippmann, Jose Marengo, Sifiso Mbatha, Simon McGree, Sandile Ngwenya, Jose Daniel Pabon Caicedo, Andrea Ramos, Jim SalingerGerard van der Schrier, Arvind Srivastava, Blair Trewin, Ricardo Vásquez Yáñez, Jorge Vazquez-Aguirre, Claudia Villaroel Jiménez, Russ Vose, Mohd Noor’Arifin Bin Hj Yussof, Xuebin Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2023EA003279
Pages (from-to)1-22
Number of pages22
JournalEarth and Space Science
Volume11
Issue number4
Early online date4 Apr 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, Crown copyright, Commonwealth of Australia and The Authors. Earth and Space Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the King's Printer for Scotland. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.

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