Substantial increase in concurrent droughts and heatwaves in the United States.
A combination of climate events (e.g., low precipitation and high temperatures) may cause a significant impact on the ecosystem and society, although individual events involved may not be severe extremes themselves. Analyzing historical changes in concurrent climate extremes is critical to preparing for and mitigating the negative effects of climatic change and variability. This study focuses on the changes in concurrences of heatwaves and meteorological droughts from 1960 to 2010. Despite an apparent hiatus in rising temperature and no significant trend in droughts, we show a substantial increase in concurrent droughts and heatwaves across most parts of the United States, and a statistically significant shift in the distribution of concurrent extremes. Although commonly used trend analysis methods do not show any trend in concurrent droughts and heatwaves, a unique statistical approach discussed in this study exhibits a statistically significant change in the distribution of the data.
Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697.
Omid
O
Mazdiyasni
Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697 amir.a@uci.edu.
Amir
A
AghaKouchak
D002980:Climate; D057231:Climate Change; D055864:Droughts; D017753:Ecosystem; D005843:Geography; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011891:Rain; D012621:Seasons; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States; D014887:Weather
climate change; compound climate extremes; concurrent extremes; drought; heatwave