Skip to main navigation Skip to search Skip to main content

Periodic extreme rainfall in a warmer climate due to stronger convectively coupled waves

  • Heng Quan*
  • , Yi Zhang
  • , Guy Dagan
  • , Stephan Fueglistaler
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Tropical regions may experience periodic extreme precipitation and suffer from associated periodic deluges in a warmer climate. Recent studies conducted small-domain (around 100 kilometers by 100 kilometers) atmospheric model simulations and found that precipitation transitions from a steady state to a periodic oscillation state in a hothouse climate when the sea surface temperature reaches 320 to 325 kelvin. Here, we conduct global-scale atmospheric model simulations with varying complexity. We find that tropical precipitation in convective regions already transitions to a 0(10-day) periodic oscillation state with a 100 mm day-1)amplitude at 305 to 310 kelvin, about 15 kelvin lower than previously reported and within reach in a century under a high-carbon emission scenario. Using a low-order analytical model, we attribute the onset of the periodic extreme precipitation to the intensification of convectively coupled waves that were not considered in the previous small-domain simulations. Our mechanism highlights the importance of the interaction between convection and atmospheric wave dynamics for climate change.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbereaed1634
JournalScience advances
Volume12
DOIs
StatePublished - 7 Aug 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2026 the Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. no claim to original U.S. Government Works. distributed under a creative commons Attribution noncommercial license 4.0 (cc BY-nc).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 13 - Climate Action
    SDG 13 Climate Action

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Periodic extreme rainfall in a warmer climate due to stronger convectively coupled waves'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this