Meteorological and hydrological dry-to-wet transition events are only weakly related over European catchments
Transitions from dry to wet states challenge water management and can lead to severe impacts. While meteorological transitions from dry-to-wet spells are well studied, it is yet unclear how, and if, they propagate to hydrological transitions. Here, we study where and why seasonal meteorological tran...
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| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ade72c |
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| Summary: | Transitions from dry to wet states challenge water management and can lead to severe impacts. While meteorological transitions from dry-to-wet spells are well studied, it is yet unclear how, and if, they propagate to hydrological transitions. Here, we study where and why seasonal meteorological transitions propagate to drought-to-flood transitions in Europe using a large-sample dataset of hydro-meteorological observations. Our analysis shows that the relationship between meteorological and hydrological transitions is weak, with only 10% and 25% of the meteorological transitions propagating to the hydrosphere at monthly and annual time scales, respectively. Transition propagation is limited by the propagation of wet spells, in particular those with small precipitation intensities and volumes but favored in catchments with a direct link between precipitation and streamflow and limited storage influences. As hydrological and meteorological transitions are only weakly related, changes in meteorological transitions are a relatively poor proxy for future changes in drought-to-flood transitions. |
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| ISSN: | 1748-9326 |