Dear Colleagues,

It is with great pleasure that I ask you to contribute to the better understanding of extreme precipitation processes and their impacts, in a broad sense, by participating in the Special Issue “Atmospheric Processes for Understanding Extreme Precipitation Events and Their Associated Impacts in the Current and Future Climate” of the journal Sustainability by MDPI.

The increased occurrence of extreme precipitation events is the cause of several damages and impacts over the continents by affecting water scarcity, wildfires, floods, or energetic supply. In a changing climate of future uncertainties, understanding the causes and dynamics that control the occurrence of such events is critical to prevent and manage potential risk over the environment and population. In this sense, the atmospheric branch of the hydrological cycle is especially relevant in developing and feeding extremely wet and dry episodes. A current understanding of the underlying physics behind dry events suggests that persistent anomalies of large-scale circulation are fundamental for its onset^1-3; however, feedback from terrestrial precipitation may be central to its evolution^{4- 6}. In the case of extreme humid events, multiple studies link their occurrence with atmospheric rivers^7-8, extreme cyclonic activity^9-10, persistent low levels jets¹¹, or monsoonal systems¹², to point to some examples. Moreover, increased attention has been recently paid to the occurrence of extreme compound events, especially because of their relevant role in the occurrence of droughts and floods^13-15, and their implication on the occurrence of huge damages to agriculture, biodiversity, and the economy.

Better understanding all these processes and their influence on the occurrence of extreme precipitation events is one of the most important challenges of the atmospheric sciences. I am sure that with your help, all contributions will provide interesting insights into the scientific world inherent to the field of extreme precipitation events.

References

1. Rowell, D.P., 2009: Projected Midlatitude Continental Summer Drying: North America versus Europe. J. Climate, 22, 2813–2833, https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1175/2008JCLI2713.1
2. Seager, R. and M. Hoerling, 2014: Atmosphere and Ocean Origins of North American Droughts. J. Climate, 27, 4581–4606, https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00329.1
3. Vautard, R., P. Yiou, F. D'Andrea, N. de Noblet, N. Viovy, C. Cassou, J. Polcher, P. Ciais, M. Kageyama, and Y. Fan, 2007: Summertime European heat and drought waves induced by wintertime Mediterranean rainfall deficit, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L07711, doi: 10.1029/2006GL028001.
4. Taylor, C. M., R. A. M. de Jeu, , F.Guichard, Harris P. P., and W. A. Dorigo, 2012: Afternoon rain more likely over drier soils. Nature, 489, 423, https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1038/nature11377
5. Guillod, B. P., B. Orlowsky, D. G.Miralles, A. J. Teuling, and S. I.  Seneviratne, 2015: Reconciling spatial and temporal soil moisture effects on afternoon rainfall. Nature Communications, 6, 6443, https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1038/ncomms7443
6. Santanello, J., C. D. Peters-Lidard, A. Kennedy, S. Kumar, and S. Zhou, 2013: "Diagnosing the Nature of Land–Atmosphere Coupling: A Case Study of Dry/Wet Extremes in the U.S. Southern Great Plains." J. Hydrometeor., 14 (1): 3-24 doi:10.1175/JHM-D-12-023.1
7. Ramos, A.M., R.M. Trigo, M.L. Liberato, and R. Tomé, 2015: Daily Precipitation Extreme Events in the Iberian Peninsula and Its Association with Atmospheric Rivers. J. Hydrometeor., 16, 579–597, https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1175/JHM-D-14-0103.1
8. Lavers, D. A., and G. Villarini, 2013: The nexus between atmospheric rivers and extreme precipitation across Europe, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, 3259–3264, doi: 10.1002/grl.50636.
9. Pfahl, S. and H. Wernli, 2012: Quantifying the Relevance of Cyclones for Precipitation Extremes. J. Climate, 25, 6770–6780, https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00705.1
10. Villarini, G., and R. F. Denniston, 2016: Contribution of tropical cyclones to extreme rainfall in Australia. Int. J. Climatol., 36: 1019-1025. doi:10.1002/joc.4393
11. Rife, D. L., J. O. Pinto, A. J. Monaghan, C. A. Davis, and J. R. Hannan, 2010: Global distribution and characteristics of diurnally varying low-level jets. J. Climate, 23, 5041–5064, doi:https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1175/2010JCLI3514.1.
12. Bohlinger, P., and A. Sorteberg, 2018: A comprehensive view on trends in extreme precipitation in Nepal and their spatial distribution. Int. J. Climatol, 38: 1833-1845. doi:10.1002/joc.5299
13. Zscheischler, J., Westra, S., van den Hurk, B.J.J.M. et al., 2018: Future climate risk from compound events. Nature Clim Change 8, 469–477. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1038/s41558-018-0156-3
14. Hendry, A., Haigh, I. D., Nicholls, R. J., Winter, H., Neal, R., Wahl, T., Joly-Laugel, A., and Darby, S. E., 2019: Assessing the characteristics and drivers of compound flooding events around the UK coast, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 3117–3139, https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.5194/hess-23-3117-2019
15. Turco, M., Jerez, S., Augusto, S. et al., 2019: Climate drivers of the 2017 devastating fires in Portugal. Sci Rep 9, 13886. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1038/s41598-019-50281-2

Dr. Marta Vázquez
Dr. Milica Stojanovic
Guest Editors

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• climate change
• extreme precipitation
• droughts
• compound events
• moisture transport
• atmospheric rivers
• cyclones
• atmospheric sciences