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Rainfall and Dragon-Kings

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Abstract

Previous studies have found broad distributions, resembling power laws for different measures of the size of rainfall events. We investigate the large-event tail of these distributions and find in one measure that tropical cyclones account for a large proportion of the very largest events outside the scaling regime, i.e., beyond the cutoff of the power law. Tropical cyclones are sufficiently rare that they contribute a significant number only in a regime of large event sizes that common rain events almost never reach. The different physical dynamics of tropical cyclones permits a substantial extension of the tail in this large-event regime.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Mathematics and Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Imperial College London, 180 Queens Gate, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    O. Peters

  2. Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, California, 90095-1565, USA

    O. Peters

  3. Dept. of Physcis, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    K. Christensen

  4. Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, California, 90095-1565, USA

    J. D. Neelin

Authors
  1. O. Peters
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  2. K. Christensen
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  3. J. D. Neelin
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Correspondence to O. Peters.

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Peters, O., Christensen, K. & Neelin, J.D. Rainfall and Dragon-Kings. Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 205, 147–158 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2012-01567-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2012-01567-5

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