Articles | Volume 21, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-441-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-441-2017
Research article
 | 
25 Jan 2017
Research article |  | 25 Jan 2017

Have precipitation extremes and annual totals been increasing in the world's dry regions over the last 60 years?

Sebastian Sippel, Jakob Zscheischler, Martin Heimann, Holger Lange, Miguel D. Mahecha, Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, Friederike E. L. Otto, and Markus Reichstein

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Short summary
The paper re-investigates the question whether observed precipitation extremes and annual totals have been increasing in the world's dry regions over the last 60 years. Despite recently postulated increasing trends, we demonstrate that large uncertainties prevail due to (1) the choice of dryness definition and (2) statistical data processing. In fact, we find only minor (and only some significant) increases if (1) dryness is based on aridity and (2) statistical artefacts are accounted for.