Steeper temporal distribution of rain intensity at higher temperatures within Australian storms

Abstract

The mechanisms that cause changes in precipitation, as well as the resulting storm dynamics, under potential future warming remain debated. Measured sensitivities of precipitation to temperature variations in the present climate have been used to constrain model predictions, debate precipitation mechanisms and speculate on future changes to precipitation and flooding. Here, we analyse data sets of precipitation measurements at 6-min resolution from 79 locations throughout Australia, covering a broad range of climate zones, along with sub-daily temperature measurements of varying resolution. We investigate the relationship between temporal patterns of precipitation intensity within storm burs..