Future Changes in Midwest Extreme Precipitation Depend on Storm Type

Abstract Midwestern U.S. extreme precipitation is associated with multiple storm types including mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) and/or training thunderstorms, tropical cyclone (TC) remnants, and winter storms. Anthropogenic warming is expected to increase climatological precipitation globally, however, there may be little correspondence with regional storm‐based changes. Furthermore, uncertainty remains in precipitation‐temperature scaling due to use of convective parameterization in most global models. In this study, we investigated historically impactful extreme precipitation events from multiple types of Midwest storms using the Weather Research and Forecasting model at convection‐permitting resolution. We simulated five‐member ensembles of historical hindcasts and experiments representing the storms in the future using the pseudo‐global warming method. We found that future precipitation changes depend on storm type, with increases near Clausius‐Clapeyron (CC) for winter storms, no consensus for MCSs and/or training thunderstorms, and sub‐CC increases for TC remnants. This research highlights the importance of considering storm type in future extreme precipitation projections.

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Publication Details

Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Published
2025-03-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2024gl113126
Primary Topic
Climate variability and models
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Future Changes in Midwest Extreme Precipitation Depend on Storm Type

Christina M. Patricola, Tyler Joseph Mercurio
Geophysical Research Letters
Climate variability and models
article

Future Changes in Midwest Extreme Precipitation Depend on Storm Type

Christina M. Patricola, Tyler Joseph Mercurio
article en

Abstract

Abstract Midwestern U.S. extreme precipitation is associated with multiple storm types including mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) and/or training thunderstorms, tropical cyclone (TC) remnants, and winter storms. Anthropogenic warming is expected to increase climatological precipitation globally, however, there may be little correspondence with regional storm‐based changes. Furthermore, uncertainty remains in precipitation‐temperature scaling due to use of convective parameterization in most global models. In this study, we investigated historically impactful extreme precipitation events from multiple types of Midwest storms using the Weather Research and Forecasting model at convection‐permitting resolution. We simulated five‐member ensembles of historical hindcasts and experiments representing the storms in the future using the pseudo‐global warming method. We found that future precipitation changes depend on storm type, with increases near Clausius‐Clapeyron (CC) for winter storms, no consensus for MCSs and/or training thunderstorms, and sub‐CC increases for TC remnants. This research highlights the importance of considering storm type in future extreme precipitation projections.

Geophysical Research LettersVol. 52(5)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US), Iowa State University (US)
Iowa State University
Openalex Percentile: Top 97%
Climate variability and models
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Future Changes in Midwest Extreme Precipitation Depend on Storm Type — Christina M. Patricola, Tyler Joseph Mercurio · Geophysical Research Letters (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS