From a paper by the same title published in AGU’s journal “Water Resources Resarch” and also “Commentaries on Hydrology and Earth Surface” h/t to CTM

It is now well established that rising temperatures are increasing precipitation extremes. This has led many to believe that flood magnitude and hence risk are also increasing, while observational evidence suggests otherwise. This commentary outlines the reasons for this dichotomy and presents mechanisms that may be contributing to it. The implications of increasing precipitation extremes leading to reducing flood magnitudes are discussed, and an argument is made that understanding this changing link between the two is deserving of increased attention.

Abstract

Despite evidence of increasing precipitation extremes, corresponding evidence for increases in flooding remains elusive. If anything, flood magnitudes are decreasing despite widespread claims by the climate community that if precipitation extremes increase, floods must also. In this commentary we suggest reasons why increases in extreme rainfall are not resulting in corresponding increases in flooding. Among the possible mechanisms responsible, we identify decreases in antecedent soil moisture, decreasing storm extent, and decreases in snowmelt. We argue that understanding the link between changes in precipitation and changes in flooding is a grand challenge for the hydrologic community and is deserving of increased attention.

Summary:

There is a clear dichotomy between observed increases in precipitation extremes and the lack of corresponding increases in floods, with reduced flood magnitudes observed in many cases. Despite the conceptual arguments we’ve made, there remains a good deal of uncertainty in the relationships between changes in precipitation and flood magnitude across the spectrum of catchment, storm, and antecedent hydrologic conditions. Although changes in flood magnitude are unlikely to be explainable by precipitation changes alone, this has largely been the focus to date in the climate literature. Moving forward, along with a better characterization of changes in floods not directly driven by precipitation increases, we argue for a focus on the complexity of the relationships among the entire suite of variables (including precipitation extremes) that lead to the generation of flood extremes. In our view, the foremost among these are as follows:

Changes to antecedent hydrologic conditions and their impact on flood response; Changes in the proportion and persistence of storms arising from different causative mechanisms, such as an increased proportion and frequency of convective extremes; Interaction among catchment size and geometry and changing storm characteristics including extent, intensity, and duration; Snow cover and snow volume changes and their changing contributions to flood extremes in a warmer climate; The role of land cover change (especially, but not only, urbanization) and the interaction of land cover change with climatic factors.

The full paper is open access at:

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2018WR023749

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