Shifting velocity of temperature extremes under climate change

In particular, an increase of weather and climate extremes can lead to increased stress on human and natural systems, and a tendency for serious adverse effects. We rely on the EURO-CORDEX simulations and focus on the the screen-level daily mean temperature (T2m).

We compare the shifting velocities of the cold and hot extremes with these of the associated central trends, i.e. the arithmetical mean or median. We define the extremes relative to the T2m distribution as it evolves with time over the period of 1951-2100. We find that temperature extremes shift at a similar velocity compared to that of the central trends.