Articles | Volume 15, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-131-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-131-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| Highlight paper
| 
16 Feb 2024
Research article | Highlight paper |
| 16 Feb 2024
| 16 Feb 2024
Detecting the human fingerprint in the summer 2022 western–central European soil drought
Dominik L. Schumacher
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Mariam Zachariah
Grantham Institute, Imperial College, London, SW7 2BU, UK
Friederike Otto
Grantham Institute, Imperial College, London, SW7 2BU, UK
Clair Barnes
Grantham Institute, Imperial College, London, SW7 2BU, UK
Sjoukje Philip
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, 3731, the Netherlands
Sarah Kew
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, 3731, the Netherlands
Maja Vahlberg
Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, The Hague, 2593, the Netherlands
Roop Singh
Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, The Hague, 2593, the Netherlands
Dorothy Heinrich
Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, The Hague, 2593, the Netherlands
Julie Arrighi
Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, The Hague, 2593, the Netherlands
Global Disaster Preparedness Center, Washington, DC 20006, USA
University of Twente, Enschede, 7500, the Netherlands
Maarten van Aalst
Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, The Hague, 2593, the Netherlands
University of Twente, Enschede, 7500, the Netherlands
International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Columbia University, New York, NY 10964-1000, USA
Mathias Hauser
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Martin Hirschi
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Verena Bessenbacher
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
MeteoSwiss, Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, Zürich-Airport, Switzerland
Lukas Gudmundsson
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Hiroko K. Beaudoing
Earth Sciences Division, NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA
Matthew Rodell
Earth Sciences Division, NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK
Wenchang Yang
Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
Gabriel A. Vecchi
Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
High Meadows Environmental Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
Luke J. Harrington
Te Aka Mātuatua School of Science, University of Waikato, Hillcrest, Hamilton 3214, New Zealand
Flavio Lehner
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-1504, USA
Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80301, USA
Polar Bears International, Bozeman, MT 3008, USA
Gianpaolo Balsamo
European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts, ECMWF, Reading, RG2 9AX, UK
Sonia I. Seneviratne
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Data sets
Pacific Northwest heat KNMI https://climexp.knmi.nl/pacificheat_timeseries.cgi
Chief editor
Agro-ecological drought has so far been subject to comparatively little research in the detection and attribution literature, compared to meteorological drought. Nonetheless, it is of direct relevance for socio-environmental impacts. This paper addresses such knolwedge gap by focussing on a recent major drought event.
Agro-ecological drought has so far been subject to comparatively little research in the...
Short summary
The 2022 summer was accompanied by widespread soil moisture deficits, including an unprecedented drought in Europe. Combining several observation-based estimates and models, we find that such an event has become at least 5 and 20 times more likely due to human-induced climate change in western Europe and the northern extratropics, respectively. Strong regional warming fuels soil desiccation; hence, projections indicate even more potent future droughts as we progress towards a 2 °C warmer world.
The 2022 summer was accompanied by widespread soil moisture deficits, including an unprecedented...
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