Global Catalog of Extreme Convective Storms Derived from Cloud Water Data
Description
Convective storms are associated with large variations in cloud water masses, which can be used to identify and classify such events. This catalog provides details on the location, timing, and size of the largest convective storms worldwide from 2002 to 2023. The ranking is based on total column cloud water (TCCW) events, which were derived by clustering global TCCW grid cells exceeding a surface mass density of 2 kg/m², utilizing a 3D-connected-component algorithm (Silversmith, 2021). The TCCW fields, with a grid resolution of 0.25° × 0.25° and one-hourly sampling, were derived from the ERA5 reanalysis data set (Hersbach et al., 2019) by subtracting total column water vapor (TCWV) from total column water (TCW). TCCW represents the sum of liquid water, cloud ice, rain and snow within a vertical column extending from the Earth’s surface to the top level of the atmosphere.
Additionally, files with polygons of the events displayed in the catalog are provided.
Files
TCCWEventCatalog.pdf
Files
(6.4 MB)
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Additional details
Related works
- Is supplement to
- Publication: 10.1029/2025JD044124 (DOI)
References
- Hersbach, H., Bell, B., Berrisford, P., Biavati, G., Horányi, A., Muñoz Sabater, J., Nicolas, J., Peubey, C., Radu, R., Rozum, I., Schepers, D., Simmons, A., Soci, C., Dee, D., Thépaut, J-N. (2023). ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present. Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) Climate Data Store (CDS). https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47
- Silversmith, W. (2021). cc3d: Connected components on multilabel 3D & 2D images. (3.2.1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5719536