Global and Regional Projected Changes in 100-yr Subdaily, Daily, and Multiday Precipitation Extremes Estimated from Three Large Ensembles of Climate Simulations

Abstract

AbstractMany studies have reported projected increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events in a warmer future climate. These results challenge the assumption of climate stationarity, a standard hypothesis in the estimation of extreme precipitation quantiles (e.g., 100-yr return period) often used as key design criteria for many infrastructures. In this work, changes in hourly to 5-day precipitation extremes occurring between the 1980–99 and 2080–99 periods are investigated using three large ensembles (LE) of climate simulations. The first two are the global CanESM2 50-member ensemble at a 2.8° resolution and the global CESM1 40-member ensemble at a 1° resolution. The third is the regional CRCM5 50-member ensemble at a 0.11° resolution, driven at its boundaries by the 50-member CanESM2 ensemble over the northeastern North America (NNA) and Europe (EU) domains. Results indicate increases in the frequency of future extreme events, and, accordingly, a reduction of the return period of current extreme events for all tested spatial resolutions and temporal scales. Agreement between the three ensembles suggests that extreme precipitations, corresponding to the 100-yr return period over the reference period, become 4–5 (2–4) times more frequent on average for the NNA (EU) domain for daily and 5-day annual maximum precipitation. Projections by CRCM5-LE show even larger increases for subdaily precipitation extremes. Considering the life-span of many public infrastructures, these changes may have important implications on service levels and the design of many water infrastructures and for public safety, and should therefore be taken into consideration in establishing design criteria.