Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1038/s43247-025-02481-0
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) European compound flood-heat-flood events associated with Omega patterns cannot be easily reproduced by a fully coupled model
Author Guo, Y.; Beyerle, U.; Bevacqua, E. ORCID logo ; Zscheischler, J. ORCID logo ; Suarez-Gutierrez, L.; Mittermeier, M.; Fu, Z.; Fischer, E.
Source Titel Communications Earth & Environment
Year 2025
Department CER
Volume 6
Page From art. 491
Language englisch
Topic T5 Future Landscapes
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15644833
Supplements https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs43247-025-02481-0/MediaObjects/43247_2025_2481_MOESM2_ESM.pdf
Abstract In September 2023, a spatially compounding event affected Europe, with an intense heatwave over northern France and nearly simultaneous extreme floods over the Iberian Peninsula and Greece. These extremes were accompanied by a low-high-low pressure system known as Omega pattern. However, the capability of climate models to reproduce such complex extremes and related atmospheric circulations is still unclear. By introducing a novel index, here we show that the 2023 event was not unique yet most extreme in recent decades. Using ensemble boosting, the fully-coupled Community Earth System Model 2 can reproduce such co-occurring extremes with remarkably similar configurations of the large-scale flow and even higher heatwave/rainfall than observed. This suggests that similar compounding events with even stronger intensity could, in principle, occur. However, such spatially compounding events are too rare in the model relative to reanalysis, suggesting that the model may underestimate their future occurrence in a warming climate.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=31023
Guo, Y., Beyerle, U., Bevacqua, E., Zscheischler, J., Suarez-Gutierrez, L., Mittermeier, M., Fu, Z., Fischer, E. (2025):
European compound flood-heat-flood events associated with Omega patterns cannot be easily reproduced by a fully coupled model
Commun. Earth Environ. 6 , art. 491 10.1038/s43247-025-02481-0