Global Increases in Compound Flood-Hot Extreme Hazards Under Climate Warming

Under global warming, a novel category of extreme events has become increasingly apparent, where flood and hot extremes occur in rapid succession, causing significant damages to infrastructure and ecosystems. However, these bivariate compound flood-hot extreme (CFH) hazards have not been comprehensively examined at the global scale, and their evolution under climate warming remains unstudied. Here, we present the first global picture of projected changes in CFH hazards by using a cascade modeling chain of CMIP6 models, satellite and reanalysis data sets, bias correction, and hydrological models. We find an increasing percentage of floods will be accompanied by hot extremes under climate change; the joint return periods of CFHs are projected to decrease globally, particularly in the tropics. These decreasing joint return periods are largely driven by changes in hot extremes and indicate a likely increase of CFH hazards, and ultimately highlight the urgent need to conduct adaptation planning for future risks.