Articles | Volume 30, issue 20
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-6421-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-6421-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
21 Oct 2026
Research article |
| 21 Oct 2026
| 21 Oct 2026
Climatology and trends of observed daily and hourly extreme precipitation in the French Alps
Sebastian Berghald
University Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Grenoble INP, IGE, 38000 Grenoble, France
Office National des Forêts – Service RTM de l'Isère, 38000 Grenoble, France
KU Leuven, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
Juliette Blanchet
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
University Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Grenoble INP, IGE, 38000 Grenoble, France
Antoine Blanc
Office National des Forêts – Service RTM de l'Isère, 38000 Grenoble, France
David Penot
EDF-DTG, 38000 Grenoble, France
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Nicolas Decoopman, Juliette Blanchet, Antoine Blanc, and Cécile Caillaud
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 5833–5855, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-5833-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-5833-2026, 2026
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This study evaluates the ability of the convection-permitting regional climate model AROME (Applications of Research to Operations at Mesoscale) to reproduce precipitation extremes and their trends, at daily and hourly scales in France, over 1959–2022. Overall, the results highlight the value of the explicit-convection model for extreme precipitation studies, while also highlighting its limitations for convective extremes.
Christophe Ogier, Mauro A. Werder, Olivier Gagliardini, Ilaria Santin, Raphael Moser, Romain Hugonnet, Antoine Blanc, and Daniel Farinotti
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 3901–3917, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-26-3901-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-26-3901-2026, 2026
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In June 2024, a destructive flood impacted the village of La Bérarde in the French Alps. Rain, snowmelt, and the drainage of a surface lake on a glacier cannot fully explain the flood magnitude. We used glacier topography to estimate how much water could also have been stored beneath the glacier before the event. Our results show that large volumes of hidden water may have existed and could have amplified the flood, highlighting an overlooked hazard in debris-covered mountain glaciers.
Paul Fournier, Antoine Blanc, Juliette Blanchet, and Matthieu Lafaysse
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2497, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2497, 2026
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When rain falls on snow, the combined effect of rainfall and snowmelt can generate flooding. Using hourly weather data across the French Alps over 1958–2024, we identified and characterized such rain-on-snow events and linked them to documented natural hazard events. While these events have become less frequent overall due to shorter snow seasons, the most intense ones have shifted toward lower, more populated elevations, meaning they are increasingly likely to impact communities.
Gerhard Krinner, Aude Champouillon, Juliette Blanchet, and Frédérique Chéruy
Geosci. Model Dev., 19, 4961–4975, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-4961-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-4961-2026, 2026
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Although the scientific community has made much progress over the last decades, climate models still do not perfectly simulate the present climate. Therefore, the model outputs are usually corrected for these errors. This article presents a method to apply successive stages of repeated error correction that lead to a better simulation of the present climate than in previous studies, in which the same correction method had been applied only once.
Aude Champouillon, Gerhard Krinner, and Juliette Blanchet
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1380, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1380, 2026
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Climate models are essential to quantify future climate change. Despite constant progress, they still exhibit errors in long-term statistics of key variables. Impact studies require using bias correction, typically applied on model outputs. Empirical run-time bias correction (ERBC), however, consist in adding empirical corrective terms to the equations of key variables. Here, we propose an intercomparison of ERBC methods, evaluated on a broad range of criteria, from global to regional scale.
Ian Castellanos, Martin Ménégoz, Juliette Blanchet, Julien Beaumet, Hubert Gallée, Eduardo Moreno-Chamarro, Chantal Staquet, and Xavier Fettweis
Earth Syst. Dynam., 17, 581–605, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-581-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-17-581-2026, 2026
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The Alps host glaciers, distinct ecosystems, socio-economic interests and water resources that are being impacted by climate change. In this study, we aim at understanding how warming occurs in the Alps in projected scenarios and what physical processes drive it. We find under these scenarios that elevations around the snowline will warm faster than elsewhere, because snow retreats to higher elevations. Indeed, snow slows down warming due to its high albedo and the energy consumed to melt it.
Valentin Dura, Guillaume Evin, Anne-Catherine Favre, and David Penot
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 2953–2971, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2953-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-2953-2026, 2026
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Traditional precipitation analyses often misrepresent intense rainfall's spatial variability. This study evaluates different spatial covariances to capture this variability in a geostatistical framework. The best covariance includes anisotropy derived from daily climate model simulations, offering a reliable alternative to anisotropy estimation using rain gauges. These findings highlight the importance of including anisotropy when generating precipitation inputs for hydrological modeling.
Gabrielle Sorini, Juliette Blanchet, Gérémy Panthou, Théo Vischel, and Yves Tramblay
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1176, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1176, 2026
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This study investigates regional flood trends across West Africa using time-varying extreme-value distributions. While most catchments show declining flood magnitudes up to the 1970s–1990s, recent trends diverge, ranging from decrease to intensification, revealing an original typology of regional hydrosystems. These results refine the narrative of hydrological changes in West Africa and provide clues to their attribution.
Abubakar Haruna, Juliette Blanchet, Guillaume Evin, and Emmanuel Paquet
Adv. Stat. Clim. Meteorol. Oceanogr., 12, 87–109, https://doi.org/10.5194/ascmo-12-87-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/ascmo-12-87-2026, 2026
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This study advances nonstationary precipitation modeling by using single, flexible distributions to analyze trends across the full daily spectrum. We demonstrate that evolving shape parameters are critical for accurately capturing observed differential changes in low, medium, and extreme quantiles. This method ensures statistical consistency, providing reliable trend assessments over the two-component framework common in climate impact analysis.
Simon Filhol, Clément Misset, Noélie Bontemps, Diego Cusicanqui, Emmanuel Paquet, Marie Dumont, Olivier Gagliardini, Pascal Lacroix, Simon Gascoin, Guillaume Thirel, Julien Brondex, Pascal Hagenmuller, Eric Larose, Philipp Schoeneich, Denis Roy, Emmanuel Thibert, Nicolas Eckert, Félix de Montety, Robin Mainieri, Alexandre Hauet, Frédéric Gottardi, Johan Berthet, Alexandre Baratier, Frédéric Liébault, Małgorzata Chmiel, Guillaume Piton, Guillaume Chambon, Guillaume James, Philippe Frey, Philip Deline, Laurent Astrade, Christian Vincent, Dominique Laigle, Alain Recking, Fatima Karbou, Adrien Mauss, Mylène Bonnefoy-Demongeot, Firmin Fontaine, Mickael Langlais, Etienne Berthier, and Antoine Blanc
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-971, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-971, 2026
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On June 21 2024, the village of La Bérarde, in the French Alps, was devastated by a flood destroying centuries old buildings. This study is an interdisciplinary work to decipher the causes and chronology of the event. The flood started with decadal rain falling on a thick snowpack. A lake observed on top of a glacier few days prior, had drained post event. With climate change, should we expect more similar compound events for alpine communities?
Camille Crapart, Sandrine Anquetin, Juliette Blanchet, and Arona Diedhiou
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 30, 163–181, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-163-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-163-2026, 2026
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Our study investigates global dryland dynamics and aridification under future climate scenarios. By employing the Food and Agriculture Organisation Aridity Index and an ensemble of 13 models from the 6th Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, we provide projections for dryland distribution and aridity index across three shared socio-economic pathways (2-4.5, 3-7.0, and 5-8.5) for the near-term (2030–2059) and for the long-term (2070–2099) future.
Valentin Dura, Guillaume Evin, Anne-Catherine Favre, and David Penot
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5679, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5679, 2025
Preprint archived
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Traditional precipitation analysis often misrepresent seasonal totals and spatial variability of intense rainfall in mountains. This study introduces a reproducible workflow to generate a daily precipitation ensembles, conditioned on rain gauges. It outperforms standard products by better capturing seasonal totals. It also quantifies interpolation uncertainty, improving flood modeling. The open-source workflow is transferable to regions with sparse rain-gauge networks or limited radar coverage.
Serigne Bassirou Diop, Job Ekolu, Yves Tramblay, Bastien Dieppois, Stefania Grimaldi, Ansoumana Bodian, Juliette Blanchet, Ponnambalam Rameshwaran, Peter Salamon, and Benjamin Sultan
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 3161–3184, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-3161-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-3161-2025, 2025
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West Africa is very vulnerable to river floods. Current flood hazards are poorly understood due to limited data. This study is filling this knowledge gap using recent databases and two regional hydrological models to analyze changes in flood risk under two climate scenarios. Results show that most areas will see more frequent and severe floods, with some increasing by over 45 %. These findings stress the urgent need for climate-resilient strategies to protect communities and infrastructure.
Valentin Dura, Guillaume Evin, Anne-Catherine Favre, and David Penot
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 2579–2601, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2579-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-2579-2024, 2024
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The increase in precipitation as a function of elevation is poorly understood in areas with complex topography. In this article, the reproduction of these orographic gradients is assessed with several precipitation products. The best product is a simulation from a convection-permitting regional climate model. The corresponding seasonal gradients vary significantly in space, with higher values for the first topographical barriers exposed to the dominant air mass circulations.
Guillaume Evin, Matthieu Le Lay, Catherine Fouchier, David Penot, Francois Colleoni, Alexandre Mas, Pierre-André Garambois, and Olivier Laurantin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 261–281, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-261-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-261-2024, 2024
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Hydrological modelling of mountainous catchments is challenging for many reasons, the main one being the temporal and spatial representation of precipitation forcings. This study presents an evaluation of the hydrological modelling of 55 small mountainous catchments of the northern French Alps, focusing on the influence of the type of precipitation reanalyses used as inputs. These evaluations emphasize the added value of radar measurements, in particular for the reproduction of flood events.
Erwan Le Roux, Guillaume Evin, Raphaëlle Samacoïts, Nicolas Eckert, Juliette Blanchet, and Samuel Morin
The Cryosphere, 17, 4691–4704, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4691-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4691-2023, 2023
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We assess projected changes in snowfall extremes in the French Alps as a function of elevation and global warming level for a high-emission scenario. On average, heavy snowfall is projected to decrease below 3000 m and increase above 3600 m, while extreme snowfall is projected to decrease below 2400 m and increase above 3300 m. At elevations in between, an increase is projected until +3 °C of global warming and then a decrease. These results have implications for the management of risks.
Juliette Blanchet, Alix Reverdy, Antoine Blanc, Jean-Dominique Creutin, Périne Kiennemann, and Guillaume Evin
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2023-197, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2023-197, 2023
Revised manuscript not accepted
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The Alpine region is strongly affected by torrential floods, sometimes leading to severe negative impacts on society, economy, and the environment. Understanding such natural hazards and their drivers is essential to mitigate related risks. In this article we study the atmospheric conditions at the origin of damaging torrential events in the Northern French Alps over the long run, using a database of reported occurrence of damaging torrential flooding in the Grenoble conurbation since 1851.
Juliette Blanchet, Alix Reverdy, Antoine Blanc, Jean-Dominique Creutin, Périne Kiennemann, and Guillaume Evin
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-2022-276, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-2022-276, 2023
Manuscript not accepted for further review
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We study the atmospheric conditions at the origin of damaging torrential events in the Northern French Alps over the long run. We consider seven atmospheric variables that describe the nature of the air masses involved and the possible triggers of precipitation and we try to isolate the most discriminating variables. The results show that humidity and particularly humidity transport plays the greatest role under westerly flows while instability potential is mostly at play under southerly flows.
Erwan Le Roux, Guillaume Evin, Nicolas Eckert, Juliette Blanchet, and Samuel Morin
Earth Syst. Dynam., 13, 1059–1075, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-1059-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-1059-2022, 2022
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Anticipating risks related to climate extremes is critical for societal adaptation to climate change. In this study, we propose a statistical method in order to estimate future climate extremes from past observations and an ensemble of climate change simulations. We apply this approach to snow load data available in the French Alps at 1500 m elevation and find that extreme snow load is projected to decrease by −2.9 kN m−2 (−50 %) between 1986–2005 and 2080–2099 for a high-emission scenario.
Abubakar Haruna, Juliette Blanchet, and Anne-Catherine Favre
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 2797–2811, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2797-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2797-2022, 2022
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Reliable prediction of floods depends on the quality of the input data such as precipitation. However, estimation of precipitation from the local measurements is known to be difficult, especially for extremes. Regionalization improves the estimates by increasing the quantity of data available for estimation. Here, we compare three regionalization methods based on their robustness and reliability. We apply the comparison to a dense network of daily stations within and outside Switzerland.
Antoine Blanc, Juliette Blanchet, and Jean-Dominique Creutin
Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 231–250, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-231-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-231-2022, 2022
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Precipitation variability and extremes in the northern French Alps are governed by the atmospheric circulation over western Europe. In this work, we study the past evolution of western Europe large-scale circulation using atmospheric descriptors. We show some discrepancies in the trends obtained from different reanalyses before 1950. After 1950, we find trends in Mediterranean circulations that appear to be linked with trends in seasonal and extreme precipitation in the northern French Alps.
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Short summary
Our study analyses extreme precipitation in the French Alps using extreme value theory on long-term observations. We compare daily and hourly observations and find regionally and seasonally different trends. On annual resolution, daily extremes show positive trends in the south and negative trends in the north, while trends in hourly extremes are noisier with an appearing east-west divide between increases in the high Alps and decreases in the pre-Alps.
Our study analyses extreme precipitation in the French Alps using extreme value theory on...
