{
  "id": 7550286,
  "title": "Extreme Equatorial Storms are Larger and More Persistent Under Warming",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/15/extreme-equatorial-storms-are-larger-and-more-persistent-under-warming",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-09-15T12:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Eos",
    "slug": "eos",
    "url": "https://eos.org/editor-highlights/extreme-equatorial-storms-are-larger-and-more-persistent-under-warming"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Recent research published in AGU Advances reveals that under global warming, extreme rainfall events in the equatorial regions of the Earth are becoming larger and persisting for longer periods, contrary to the widespread belief that peak rainfall intensities are the only significant change. This study, conducted by Zhuang and colleagues, utilized a unique dataset combining weather radar observations from a network of 122 rain gauges covering a 730 km² area in Singapore over a 45-year period. The researchers reconstructed gridded rainfall fields at 100-meter spatial resolution, which allowed them to analyze temporal trends in the annual number of extreme rainfall events and the accumulated amount of rainfall exceeding a certain intensity threshold. The results show that while peak rainfall intensities have remained largely unchanged, tropical extreme rainfall events are intensifying through greater spatial extent and longer persistence. This finding has important implications for climate risk assessment and adaptation strategies as the tropics play a central role in the Earth's climate system and host some of the world's most intense precipitation.",
  "summary": "Extreme storms in the tropical regions are expanding and becoming more persistent with climate warming, resulting in higher storm rainfall volumes while peak intensity remains unchanged.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}