Extreme Equatorial Storms are Larger and More Persistent Under Warming

Credit: Sreenivas, Unsplash Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors. Source: AGU Advances Gaining a better understanding of how extreme rainfall is evolving in the tropics under global warming is essential, as this region plays a central role in the Earth’s climate system and hosts some of the world’s most intense precipitation. Yet, despite its global significance, the tropics remain among the most poorly monitored regions, making improved observations and analyses critical for advancing climate science and informing adaptation. Observed hourly extreme rainfall in tropical Singapore (1980–2024). Temporal trends in the annual number of events and accumulated amount of extreme rainfall (rainfall above a certain intensity threshold). The shaded area denotes the interquartile range (25th–75th percentile) of the 100-meter gridded rainfall reanalysis. “n.s” in the upper right indicates a non-significant trend. Credit: Zhuang et al. [2026], Figure 1a By combining a unique dataset of weather radar observations and 122 rain gauges covering a 730 km² area in Singapore, Zhuang et al. [2026] reconstruct gridded rainfall fields at 100-meter spatial resolution over a 45-year period. They show that tropical extreme rainfall responds to warming in a fundamentally different way than commonly assumed—extremes intensify through greater spatial extent and longer persistence, while peak rainfall intensities remain largely unchanged. These findings provide new insight into how rainfall extremes evolve under global warming and offer essential information for improving climate risk assessment and adaptation strategies. Citation: Zhuang, Q., Peleg, N., Prein, A. F., Babovic, V., & Fatichi, S. (2026). Equatorial extreme convective storms are expanding and becoming more persistent. AGU Advances, 7, e2026AV002370. https://doi.org/10.1029/2026AV002370 —Alberto Montanari, Editor-in-Chief, AGU Advances Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.