Climate: Past, Present & Future

extreme precipitation

Can we improve our understanding of extreme precipitation events in the Sichuan Basin by using high-resolution regional climate models?

Laura Detjen and Julia Curio April 7, 2025

The Tibetan Plateau is an elevated region with an average height of 4500 m, located in high-mountain Asia (Photo Credit: Julia Curio)

Invited guest from the EGU 2024 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award Context The Sichuan Basin, located at the eastern slope of the Tibetan Plateau in China, is a lowland region that regularly experiences heavy rainfall during the summer months. This is due to its complex topographical features (Fig. 1) and the influence of the East Asian monsoon. The heavy rainfall can ...[Read More]

Atmospheric Rivers: the water tap of extreme precipitation

October 7, 2021

Figure 1. The atmospheric river over the North Atlantic that delivered record-breaking rainfall to Norway in September 2005. No-data areas are colored in gray (Source: NOAA, 2016).

Extreme precipitation events, i.e., heavy rain episodes of short duration, can lead to severe or even catastrophic social and economic impacts, as seen recently in different flooding and landslide incidents throughout the world. One of the drivers behind these events is the occurrence of atmospheric rivers (ARs), a mechanism that transports great amounts of water vapour across the globe, and signi ...[Read More]