RHITA: a framework for real-time detection and characterization of weather extremes

Extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, thunderstorms, and cyclones threaten human lives, ecosystems, and economic stability. Tracking and characterizing the spatiotemporal dynamics of such events is essential for understanding their cascading impacts on socioeconomic and environmental systems. When the detection and characterization of extremes are done in real-time, they can provide critical information that benefits many sectors, including agriculture, emergency management, and regulatory authorities.

To offer a tool for operational monitoring of weather-related hazards across Europe, we developed RHITA (Real-time Hazards Identification and Tracking Algorithm), an online framework designed for the rapid, automated, and objective spatiotemporal detection of hazards driven by extreme weather events. RHITA is intended for a wide range of users, including scientists, policymakers, authorities, and the general public. It leverages the ERA5 dataset for real-time detection, and the algorithm is calibrated using the EM-DAT dataset, which documents global disaster occurrences and impacts.

RHITA currently offers two main features: (1) real-time tracking and spatiotemporal characterization of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts, cold spells, cyclones, and storms, focusing on associated hazards like extreme temperatures, water deficits, heavy precipitation, and strong winds; and (2) publicly available, up-to-date, transboundary historical spatiotemporal hazard catalogs for Europe.