Dynamic and thermodynamic contributions to future extreme-rainfall intensification: a case study for Belgium

TL;DR

This study assesses how thermodynamic and dynamical factors contribute to future extreme rainfall in Belgium, finding thermodynamics mainly drive increases in intensity and likelihood, with specific weather patterns playing significant roles.

Contribution

It introduces a regional assessment methodology combining Lamb Weather Type classification with climate model reliability to evaluate future extreme rainfall changes.

Findings

Thermodynamic factors mainly drive future rainfall extremes.

Extreme rainfall probability increases across all seasons.

Certain weather patterns disproportionately contribute to these changes.

Abstract

Extreme precipitation is projected to become more frequent and more intense due to climate change and associated thermodynamical effects, but the local response of atmospheric circulation under future climate scenarios remains uncertain due mainly to dynamical differences. In this study, we outline a methodology for a regional assessment of future extreme precipitation based on the Lamb Weather Type classification and to evaluate future changes in weather patterns. While anticyclonic days occur most frequently over Belgium, extreme rainfall is mostly associated with days of cyclonic, westerly and south-westerly weather patterns. GCMs from CMIP6 are first selected based on their reliability in representing local atmospheric circulation patterns during days with extreme rainfall days. It was found that for our case study over Belgium, the future (end-of-the-century SSP3-7.0) changes in intensity and likelihood of rainfall extremes can be primarily attributed to thermodynamic factors, with minimal contribution from changes in atmospheric dynamics. Both intensity and probability of extreme rainfall increase for all seasons. While extreme-rainfall probabilities mostly increase in fall and winter, the associated intensity changes are dominated by positive changes in spring and summer. Additionally, the weather patterns that are historically associated with extreme rainfall, disproportionally contribute to these changes, especially to thermodynamic changes. More specifically, robust changes arise from an increased extreme-rainfall occurrence probability in case of cyclonic, south-westerly and westerly circulation types.