On the role of antecedent meteorological conditions on flash drought initialization in Europe
The fast depletion of soil moisture in the top soil layers characterizes flash drought events. Due to their rapid onset and intensification, flash droughts severely impact ecosystem productivity. Thus understanding their initialization mechanisms is essential for improving the skill of drought forec...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acd8d3 |
| _version_ | 1797747301601509376 |
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| author | Jignesh Shah Rohini Kumar Luis Samaniego Yannis Markonis Martin Hanel Sabine Attinger Vittal Hari Oldrich Rakovec |
| author_facet | Jignesh Shah Rohini Kumar Luis Samaniego Yannis Markonis Martin Hanel Sabine Attinger Vittal Hari Oldrich Rakovec |
| author_sort | Jignesh Shah |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The fast depletion of soil moisture in the top soil layers characterizes flash drought events. Due to their rapid onset and intensification, flash droughts severely impact ecosystem productivity. Thus understanding their initialization mechanisms is essential for improving the skill of drought forecasting systems. Here, we examine the role of antecedent meteorological conditions that lead to flash droughts across Europe over the last 70 years (1950–2019) using ERA5 dataset. We find two major flash-drought types based on a sequence of development of antecedent hydro-meteorological conditions. The first type is characterized by a joint occurrence of two mechanisms, a decline of precipitation in conjunction with an increase of the evaporative demand, both occurring before the onset of a flash drought event. The second type, on the contrary, is characterized by high precipitation preceding the event’s start, followed by a sudden precipitation deficit combined with an increase in evaporative demand at the onset of the drought. Both drought types showed increased occurrence and higher spatial coverage over the last 70 years; the second drought type has increased at a much faster rate compared to the first one specifically, over Central Europe and the Mediterranean region. Overall our study highlights the differences between the two types of flash droughts, related to varying antecedent meteorological conditions, and their changes under recent climate warming. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:49:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-50f0c35a2e294f77b7542e7d3a30afd2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:49:47Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-50f0c35a2e294f77b7542e7d3a30afd22023-08-09T15:16:28ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262023-01-0118606403910.1088/1748-9326/acd8d3On the role of antecedent meteorological conditions on flash drought initialization in EuropeJignesh Shah0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0888-2960Rohini Kumar1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4396-2037Luis Samaniego2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8449-4428Yannis Markonis3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0144-8969Martin Hanel4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8317-6711Sabine Attinger5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7798-7080Vittal Hari6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8754-0488Oldrich Rakovec7https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2451-3305Department Computational Hydrosystems, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research , Leipzig, GermanyDepartment Computational Hydrosystems, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research , Leipzig, GermanyDepartment Computational Hydrosystems, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research , Leipzig, Germany; University of Potsdam, Institute of Environmental Science and Geography , Am Neuen Palais 10, 14469 Potsdam, GermanyFaculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague , Praha-Suchdol 16500, Czech RepublicFaculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague , Praha-Suchdol 16500, Czech RepublicDepartment Computational Hydrosystems, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research , Leipzig, Germany; University of Potsdam, Institute of Environmental Science and Geography , Am Neuen Palais 10, 14469 Potsdam, GermanyDepartment of Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (ISM) Dhanbad , IndiaDepartment Computational Hydrosystems, UFZ-Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research , Leipzig, Germany; Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague , Praha-Suchdol 16500, Czech RepublicThe fast depletion of soil moisture in the top soil layers characterizes flash drought events. Due to their rapid onset and intensification, flash droughts severely impact ecosystem productivity. Thus understanding their initialization mechanisms is essential for improving the skill of drought forecasting systems. Here, we examine the role of antecedent meteorological conditions that lead to flash droughts across Europe over the last 70 years (1950–2019) using ERA5 dataset. We find two major flash-drought types based on a sequence of development of antecedent hydro-meteorological conditions. The first type is characterized by a joint occurrence of two mechanisms, a decline of precipitation in conjunction with an increase of the evaporative demand, both occurring before the onset of a flash drought event. The second type, on the contrary, is characterized by high precipitation preceding the event’s start, followed by a sudden precipitation deficit combined with an increase in evaporative demand at the onset of the drought. Both drought types showed increased occurrence and higher spatial coverage over the last 70 years; the second drought type has increased at a much faster rate compared to the first one specifically, over Central Europe and the Mediterranean region. Overall our study highlights the differences between the two types of flash droughts, related to varying antecedent meteorological conditions, and their changes under recent climate warming.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acd8d3flash droughtantecedent conditionsEuropeinitializationERA5 |
| spellingShingle | Jignesh Shah Rohini Kumar Luis Samaniego Yannis Markonis Martin Hanel Sabine Attinger Vittal Hari Oldrich Rakovec On the role of antecedent meteorological conditions on flash drought initialization in Europe Environmental Research Letters flash drought antecedent conditions Europe initialization ERA5 |
| title | On the role of antecedent meteorological conditions on flash drought initialization in Europe |
| title_full | On the role of antecedent meteorological conditions on flash drought initialization in Europe |
| title_fullStr | On the role of antecedent meteorological conditions on flash drought initialization in Europe |
| title_full_unstemmed | On the role of antecedent meteorological conditions on flash drought initialization in Europe |
| title_short | On the role of antecedent meteorological conditions on flash drought initialization in Europe |
| title_sort | on the role of antecedent meteorological conditions on flash drought initialization in europe |
| topic | flash drought antecedent conditions Europe initialization ERA5 |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acd8d3 |
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