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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gasser, Kamal, Segers, Johan, Ragone, Francesco
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26359
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author Gasser, Kamal
Segers, Johan
Ragone, Francesco
author_facet Gasser, Kamal
Segers, Johan
Ragone, Francesco
contents We develop a unified statistical framework for attributing heatwaves as spatio-temporal phenomena under climate change. We quantify the impact of anthropogenic forcing on the probability and persistence of heatwaves not captured by standard marginal extreme-value approaches. Our methodology constructs a generative model for daily temperature fields that separates marginal nonstationarity from spatio-temporal dependence. We combine three components: a Bayesian spatial quantile regression model for the bulk of the data; a nonstationary spatial generalized extreme value model for tail behavior; and a copula-based model capturing both asymptotic dependence and independence in the extremes. The framework is applied to the CMIP6 MRI-ESM2 climate model, contrasting factual and counterfactual scenarios for probabilistic attribution. Our results show that the approach captures key heatwave characteristics inaccessible to traditional methods, enabling direct estimation of event-level attribution metrics. Overall, it provides a flexible basis for analyzing and attributing complex climate extremes as space-time objects.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_26359
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A spatio-temporal statistical framework for heatwave attribution under climate change
Gasser, Kamal
Segers, Johan
Ragone, Francesco
Applications
Methodology
We develop a unified statistical framework for attributing heatwaves as spatio-temporal phenomena under climate change. We quantify the impact of anthropogenic forcing on the probability and persistence of heatwaves not captured by standard marginal extreme-value approaches. Our methodology constructs a generative model for daily temperature fields that separates marginal nonstationarity from spatio-temporal dependence. We combine three components: a Bayesian spatial quantile regression model for the bulk of the data; a nonstationary spatial generalized extreme value model for tail behavior; and a copula-based model capturing both asymptotic dependence and independence in the extremes. The framework is applied to the CMIP6 MRI-ESM2 climate model, contrasting factual and counterfactual scenarios for probabilistic attribution. Our results show that the approach captures key heatwave characteristics inaccessible to traditional methods, enabling direct estimation of event-level attribution metrics. Overall, it provides a flexible basis for analyzing and attributing complex climate extremes as space-time objects.
title A spatio-temporal statistical framework for heatwave attribution under climate change
topic Applications
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.26359