Hengchun Ye, Eric J. Fetzer, Sun Wong, Bjorn H. Lambrigtsen

Science Advances

Published date January 25, 2017

Rapid decadal convective precipitation increase over Eurasia during the last three decades of the 20th century

  • Defines convective precipitation as localized, short-lived, intense, and sometimes violent
  • States there has been little research done to understand the long-term changes in convective precipitation characteristics and their role in precipitation extremes and intensity over extratropical regions
  • Shows that the annual convective precipitation total over Eurasia has been increasing astonishingly fast, at a rate of 18.4%/°C, of which 16% is attributable to an increase in convective precipitation occurrence, and 2.4% is attributable to increased daily intensity based on the 35 years of two (combined) historical data sets of 3-hourly synoptic observations and daily precipitation
  • Finds the overall increase in mean daily precipitation intensity is mostly due to increased convective precipitation, possibly at the expense of nonconvective precipitation
  • Finds that transitional seasons are becoming more summer-like as convective precipitation becomes the dominant precipitation type that has accompanied higher daily extremes and intensity since the late 1980s
  • The data demonstrates that increasing convective precipitation and daily extremes appear to be directly linearly associated with higher atmospheric water vapor accompanying a warming climate over northern Eurasia