EXTREME EVENTS (A SOBEL AND SJ CAMARGO, SECTION EDITORS) Precipitation Extremes Under Climate Change

# The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract The response of precipitation extremes to climate change is considered using results from theory, modeling, and observations, with a focus on the physical factors that control the response. Observations and simulations with climate models show that precipitation extremes intensify in response to a warming climate. However, the sensitivity of precipitation extremes to warming remains uncertain when convection is important, and it may be higher in the tropics than the extratropics. Several physical contributions govern the re-sponse of precipitation extremes. The thermodynamic contri-bution is robust and well understood, but theoretical under-standing of the microphysical and dynamical contributions is still being developed. Orographic precipitation extremes and snowfall extremes respond differently from other precipitation extremes and require particular attention. Outstanding re-search challenges include the influence of mesoscale convec-tive organization, the dependence on the duration considered, and the need to better constrain the sensitivity of tropical pre-cipitation extremes to warming