Interactive visualisation system for compound weather and climate extremes in Hungary based on station data series

Due to climate change, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events is expected to increase. Compound events, when several extreme events occur simultaneously or amplify each other, may also become more frequent in the future. To provide a realistic picture of the extremity of everyday weather events to citizens, it is important to show which phenomena are considered extreme in a given location and season. For this purpose, we developed an interactive visualisation system for the compound weather and climate extremes in Hungary. The system uses the daily measured data of 70 synoptic and climatological stations in Hungary from 2002 to the present, which are available in the database of the Hungarian Meteorological Service. The following extreme events and their intensities are calculated from the stations’ data series: days with extreme cold and warm mean temperatures, days with extreme warm maximum temperatures, days with extreme cold minimum temperatures, days with extreme daily temperature range, stormy days, days with extreme high precipitation, extreme rainy periods, extreme dry periods.The visualisation system allows users to view the extremity of weather events for a single station, regionally or nationally, with customised settings. This tool can be used as a communication platform from scientists towards non-professional users to raise climate change awareness with a special focus on extremes with high potential impacts.

Acknowledgements: Research leading to this study has been supported by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Fund (under grant K-129162) and the National Multidisciplinary Laboratory for Climate Change (RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00014).