In some places the lack of rainfall leads to extreme drought, empty rain cisterns and water shortage. Elsewhere there are reports of the destructive force of masses of extreme rainfall. Meteorology provides the scientific basis and explanations for their related impacts by evaluating long-term observation data, simulation results and forecasts.
The DACH Conference for Meteorology is a conferences organized between German, Austrian and Swiss partners, mostly held in the German language, and offers a platform for experts to exchange knowledge on meteorology and other related topics. Scientists from the 'Hydrological Risks' working group at PIK gave a presentation about their new results with the title 'Cumulative weather extremes due to persistent atmospheric flow patterns: A hitherto underestimated risk?' as a part of the largest session this year which dealt with the rapidly progressing of global warming and the already measurable consequences for our weather.
Current analyses of circulation patterns show that persisting extreme weather conditions is something which, according to RD2 meteorologist Peter Hoffmann, is still underestimated by climate models. The reason for this is that dry years comparable to 2018 are usually triggered by unusually long-lasting weather patterns with below-average rainfall.
