Articles | Volume 6, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1147-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1147-2025
Research article
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21 Oct 2025
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 21 Oct 2025

Estimating return periods for extreme events in climate models through Ensemble Boosting

Luna Bloin-Wibe, Robin Noyelle, Vincent Humphrey, Urs Beyerle, Reto Knutti, and Erich Fischer

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Cited articles

Au, S.-K. and Beck, J. L.: Estimation of small failure probabilities in high dimensions by subset simulation, Probabilistic Engineering Mechanics, 16, 263–277, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0266-8920(01)00019-4, 2001. a, b, c
Barriopedro, D., García-Herrera, R., Ordóñez, C., Miralles, D. G., and Salcedo-Sanz, S.: Heat Waves: Physical Understanding and Scientific Challenges, Reviews of Geophysics, 61, e2022RG000780, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022RG000780, 2023. a
Bartusek, S., Kornhuber, K., and Ting, M.: 2021 North American heatwave amplified by climate change-driven nonlinear interactions, Nature Climate Change, 12, 1143–1150, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01520-4, 2022. a, b
Bloin-Wibe, L., Noyelle, R., Humphrey, V., Beyerle, U., Knutti,R., and Fischer, E.: Estimating return periods for extreme events in climate models through Ensemble Boosting, ETH Bibliography [data set], https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000720049, 2025a. a
Bloin-Wibe, L., Noyelle, R., and Humphrey, V.: Boosting_estimator, GitHub [code], https://github.com/luna-bloin/Boosting_estimator, 2025b. a
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Executive editor
This study introduces an original methodology combining ensemble boosting and conditional probability theory to estimate return periods of rare climate extremes without relying on long climate simulations. The method is rigorously developed, validated on a red-noise process, and applied to CESM2 simulations, including an analysis of the 2021 Pacific Northwest heatwave. Importantly, this framework enables linking probability estimates to specific climate storylines, allowing an assessment of the odds that an extreme event like the one examined will occur in the future.
Short summary
Weather extremes have become more frequent due to climate change. It is therefore crucial to understand them, but since they are rarer than average weather, they are challenging to study. Ensemble Boosting (EB) is a tool that generates extreme climate model events efficiently, but without directly estimating their probability. Here, we present a method to recover these probabilities for a global climate model. EB can thus now be used to find extremes with meaningful statistical information.
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