Global hotspots for the occurrence of compound events

Nina N. Ridder (), Andy J. Pitman, Seth Westra, Anna Ukkola, Hong Do, Margot Bador, Annette L. Hirsch, Jason P. Evans, Alejandro Luca and Jakob Zscheischler
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Nina N. Ridder: University of New South Wales
Andy J. Pitman: University of New South Wales
Seth Westra: University of Adelaide
Anna Ukkola: Australian National University
Margot Bador: University of New South Wales
Annette L. Hirsch: University of New South Wales
Jason P. Evans: University of New South Wales
Alejandro Luca: University of New South Wales
Jakob Zscheischler: University of Bern

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Compound events (CEs) are weather and climate events that result from multiple hazards or drivers with the potential to cause severe socio-economic impacts. Compared with isolated hazards, the multiple hazards/drivers associated with CEs can lead to higher economic losses and death tolls. Here, we provide the first analysis of multiple multivariate CEs potentially causing high-impact floods, droughts, and fires. Using observations and reanalysis data during 1980–2014, we analyse 27 hazard pairs and provide the first spatial estimates of their occurrences on the global scale. We identify hotspots of multivariate CEs including many socio-economically important regions such as North America, Russia and western Europe. We analyse the relative importance of different multivariate CEs in six continental regions to highlight CEs posing the highest risk. Our results provide initial guidance to assess the regional risk of CE events and an observationally-based dataset to aid evaluation of climate models for simulating multivariate CEs.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19639-3

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