Drivers of Humid Heat Extremes across the Global Tropics

Keynote Oral Presentation

Humid heat is a serious risk to human health, reducing the body’s ability to cool through sweating. Despite its importance, research into the meteorological drivers of humid heat extremes is immature compared to that for drier, mid-latitude events. I will show that rainfall is a key ingredient for humid heat, and its role varies depending on the climatology of the (sub)tropical region (i.e. moisture or energy limited). Predictability is controlled primarily by ENSO at the seasonal time scale, however the strongest control on day-to-day variability is equatorial kelvin waves.