On the definition of extreme evaporation events

Even though evaporation is a crucial component of the energy and water cycles, its extremes remain largely unexplored. To address this gap, this study introduces a statistical framework defining Extreme Evaporation Events (ExEvEs) as individual events with onset and termination. Despite their statistical definition, ExEvEs are shown to have a physical basis, as they relate to radiation and/or precipitation—the main energy and water sources for land evaporation. By applying this methodological approach over Czechia, we can see that ExEvEs tend to form clusters of heightened evaporation lasting several days which fluctuate differently than the average evaporation resulting to significant implications for water availability and regional water cycle's acceleration. The proposed event-based framework provides a systematic way to detect, characterize, and analyse evaporation extremes, which helps to improve our understanding of their drivers and impacts.