Changes in observed climate extremes in global urban areas
Climate extremes have profound implications for urban infrastructure and human society, but studies of observed changes in climate extremes over the global urban areas are few, even though more than half of the global population now resides in urban areas. Here, using observed station data for 217 u...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2015-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/2/024005 |
| _version_ | 1827871496121352192 |
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| author | Vimal Mishra Auroop R Ganguly Bart Nijssen Dennis P Lettenmaier |
| author_facet | Vimal Mishra Auroop R Ganguly Bart Nijssen Dennis P Lettenmaier |
| author_sort | Vimal Mishra |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Climate extremes have profound implications for urban infrastructure and human society, but studies of observed changes in climate extremes over the global urban areas are few, even though more than half of the global population now resides in urban areas. Here, using observed station data for 217 urban areas across the globe, we show that these urban areas have experienced significant increases ( p -value <0.05) in the number of heat waves during the period 1973–2012, while the frequency of cold waves has declined. Almost half of the urban areas experienced significant increases in the number of extreme hot days, while almost 2/3 showed significant increases in the frequency of extreme hot nights. Extreme windy days declined substantially during the last four decades with statistically significant declines in about 60% in the urban areas. Significant increases ( p -value <0.05) in the frequency of daily precipitation extremes and in annual maximum precipitation occurred at smaller fractions (17 and 10% respectively) of the total urban areas, with about half as many urban areas showing statistically significant downtrends as uptrends. Changes in temperature and wind extremes, estimated as the result of a 40 year linear trend, differed for urban and non-urban pairs, while changes in indices of extreme precipitation showed no clear differentiation for urban and selected non-urban stations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:10:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d8c0477b0eee4023b82340556a053aa7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:10:54Z |
| publishDate | 2015-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-d8c0477b0eee4023b82340556a053aa72023-08-09T14:09:32ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262015-01-0110202400510.1088/1748-9326/10/2/024005Changes in observed climate extremes in global urban areasVimal Mishra0Auroop R Ganguly1Bart Nijssen2Dennis P Lettenmaier3Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), Gandhinagar, India; Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington , Seattle, USA; Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University , Boston, USACivil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University , Boston, USACivil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington , Seattle, USACivil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington , Seattle, USA; Department of Geography, University of California , Los Angeles, USAClimate extremes have profound implications for urban infrastructure and human society, but studies of observed changes in climate extremes over the global urban areas are few, even though more than half of the global population now resides in urban areas. Here, using observed station data for 217 urban areas across the globe, we show that these urban areas have experienced significant increases ( p -value <0.05) in the number of heat waves during the period 1973–2012, while the frequency of cold waves has declined. Almost half of the urban areas experienced significant increases in the number of extreme hot days, while almost 2/3 showed significant increases in the frequency of extreme hot nights. Extreme windy days declined substantially during the last four decades with statistically significant declines in about 60% in the urban areas. Significant increases ( p -value <0.05) in the frequency of daily precipitation extremes and in annual maximum precipitation occurred at smaller fractions (17 and 10% respectively) of the total urban areas, with about half as many urban areas showing statistically significant downtrends as uptrends. Changes in temperature and wind extremes, estimated as the result of a 40 year linear trend, differed for urban and non-urban pairs, while changes in indices of extreme precipitation showed no clear differentiation for urban and selected non-urban stations.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/2/024005urban areasclimate extremesheat waveprecipitation extremes |
| spellingShingle | Vimal Mishra Auroop R Ganguly Bart Nijssen Dennis P Lettenmaier Changes in observed climate extremes in global urban areas Environmental Research Letters urban areas climate extremes heat wave precipitation extremes |
| title | Changes in observed climate extremes in global urban areas |
| title_full | Changes in observed climate extremes in global urban areas |
| title_fullStr | Changes in observed climate extremes in global urban areas |
| title_full_unstemmed | Changes in observed climate extremes in global urban areas |
| title_short | Changes in observed climate extremes in global urban areas |
| title_sort | changes in observed climate extremes in global urban areas |
| topic | urban areas climate extremes heat wave precipitation extremes |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/10/2/024005 |
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