Extreme Event

Definition

A time and place in which weather, climate, or environmental conditions (such as temperature, precipitation, drought, or flooding) rank above a threshold value near the upper or lower ends of the range of historical measurements.

Source

Herring, D. (2020) What is an "extreme event"? Is there evidence that global warming has caused or contributed to any particular extreme event?, Climate Q&A, Climate.Gov, NOAA

Available at: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/what-extreme-event-there-evidence-global-warming-has-caused-or-contributed#:~:text=An%20extreme%20event%20is%20a,the%20range%20of%20historical%20measurements last accessed on 29 May 2022.

Note: Though the threshold is subjective, some scientists define extreme events as those that occur in the highest or lowest 5% or 10% of historical measurements. Other times they describe events by how far they are from the mean, or by their recurrence interval or probability.

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