Abstract
Central Asia faces an increasing challenge related to water resources arising from severe droughts and floods that have impacted the region in the past decades. Using a comprehensive set of extreme precipitation indices, we assess the performance of CMIP6 models in representing observed precipitation extremes and investigate future responses of these extremes to greenhouse gas emissions under four shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP). Particularly, this study identifies robust signals of projected changes in spring and summer precipitation extremes over central Asia. Results show that the CMIP6 models reasonably reproduced the spatial distribution and variability of precipitation extremes over southern central Asia (SCA) and northern central Asia (NCA) during the spring and summer seasons, respectively. Across the SSPs, the CMIP6 models project a decrease in total spring wet-day precipitation amount (PRCPTOT) over SCA and a significant increase in PRCPTOT over the NCA. The projected changes are characterized by a significant increase in maximum consecutive 5-day precipitation (RX5day), wet-day intensity (SDII), and the number of heavy precipitation days (R10mm); these suggest that the spring will be characterized by intense precipitation extremes. Moreover, no significant change is projected for consecutive wet days (CWD) and dry spells (CDD) over SCA. Nonetheless, the CMIP6 models project a significant increase in summer PRCPTOT over SCA and a decrease in summer PRCPTOT, RX5day, R10mm, SDII, and CWD over NCA while projecting a significant and robust increase in dry spells. It is also found that the severity of the projected dry spell deepens across the SSP spectra and gets more pronounced towards the end of the 21st century. Notably, the intermodel spread of the precipitation extremes is smaller during the spring over SCA, larger during the summer season over NCA, and more probable in the warmer future.
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