Articles | Volume 23, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1921-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1921-2023
Research article
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26 May 2023
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 26 May 2023

The 2018 west-central European drought projected in a warmer climate: how much drier can it get?

Emma E. Aalbers, Erik van Meijgaard, Geert Lenderink, Hylke de Vries, and Bart J. J. M. van den Hurk

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Cited articles

Aalbers, E. E., Lenderink, G., van Meijgaard, E., and van den Hurk, B. J. J. M.: Local-scale changes in mean and heavy precipitation in western Europe: climate change or internal variability?, Clim. Dynam., 50, 4745–4766, 2018. 
Allen, C. D., Macalady, A. K., Chenchouni, H., Bachelet, D., Mcdowell, N., Vennetier, M., Kitzberger, T., Rigling, A., Breshears, D. D., and Hogg, E. H.: A global overview of drought and heat-induced tree mortality reveals emerging climate change risks for forests, Forest Ecol. Manag., 259, 660–684, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2009.09.001, 2010. 
Anderegg, W. R., Trugman, A. T., Badgley, G., Konings, A. G., and Shaw, J.: Divergent forest sensitivity to repeated extreme droughts, Nat. Clim. Change, 10, 1091–1095, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00919-1, 2020. 
Attema, J. J., Loriaux, J. M., and Lenderink, G.: Extreme precipitation response to climate perturbations in an atmospheric mesoscale model, ERL, 9, 014003, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/1/014003, 2014. 
Balsamo, G., Beljaars, A., Scipal, K., Viterbo, P., Van den Hurk, B., Hirschi, M., and Betts, A. K.: A revised hydrology for the ECMWF model: Verification from field site to terrestrial water storage and impact in the integrated forecast system, J. Hydrometeorol., 10, 623–643, https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JHM1068.1, 2009. 
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Executive editor
Droughts and associated heat waves threaten society and nature, as again demonstrated in this year's drought event in Europe. This study examines the impact of global warming on drought severity in west-central Europe by creating future analogues of present-day droughts. On the one hand, this approach allows the authors to investigate changes in droughts conditional on the present-day atmospheric circulation. On the other hand, the future drought analogues are directly linked to real-world events and their societal impact, which make the results very tangible and therewith useful for climate change communication to policy makers, decision makers as well as the broader public.
Short summary
To examine the impact of global warming on west-central European droughts, we have constructed future analogues of recent summers. Extreme droughts like 2018 further intensify, and the local temperature rise is much larger than in most summers. Years that went hardly noticed in the present-day climate may emerge as very dry and hot in a warmer world. The changes can be directly linked to real-world events, which makes the results very tangible and hence useful for climate change communication.
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