Atmospheric moisture sources associated with extreme precipitation during the peak precipitation month

Abstract

Understanding moisture transport is crucial for understanding continental precipitation and extreme precipitation events, which are expected to become substantially more frequent under global warming conditions. In this work, the influence of major global moisture sources on extreme continental precipitation during the peak precipitation month is estimated and compared with climatological patterns. The results show a general change in the pattern of contribution of the primary source of precipitation (the source with the highest contribution) during extreme precipitation events. Most primary sources show a general reduction in their area of influence and a notable reduction in their contribution to the total precipitation.

Keywords

• Extreme precipitation
• Global moisture sources
• Lagrangian analysis