Observed Scaling of Precipitation Extremes With Surface Temperature and Convective Available Potential Energy

Changes in precipitation extremes remain a key uncertainty as the climate warms. Improved understanding of their evolution is crucial for effective water management. A number of studies have demonstrated various scaling relationships between precipitation extremes and several different environmental variables. In this chapter, we review recent important advances in two of these relationships primarily based on observations: The scaling of precipitation extremes with surface temperature (both air temperature and dew point temperature) and convective available potential energy (CAPE). Two up-to-date global daily datasets are also used to provide a further check on the generality of earlier findings. By applying known scaling relationships, we quantify the impacts of these two factors on precipitation extremes. Results show that both of them play important roles in precipitation extremes, but their impacts vary across regions and timescales, highlighting the challenges of constructing global relationships to explain the changing nature of precipitation extremes.