Frequency of compound hot–dry weather extremes has significantly increased in Australia since 1889

There is high confidence that climate change has increased the probability of concurrent temperature-precipitation extremes, changed their spatial-temporal variations and affected relationships between drivers such natural hazards. However, extent changes been less investigated in Australia. Daily data spanning period 1889-2019 (131 years) were extracted from SILO gridded dataset at 700 grid cells (1◦ × 1◦) across Australia to calculate annual seasonal mean daily maximum temperature (MMT) total precipitation (TPR). A nonparametric multivariate copula framework was adopted estimate return compound hot-dry (CHD) events based on an ‘And’ hazard scenario (hotter than a threshold drier threshold). CHD extremes defined as years with joint periods longer 25 calculated over 1889-2019. Mann-Kendall tests used analyse trends MMT TPR well frequency univariate extremes. Results showed general cooling-wetting trend 1889-1989. Significant increasing detected 1990-2019 severity hot country while dry mostly insignificant (and decreasing). significant increase association identified various temporal scales. While stable 1889-1989, it significantly 1990 2019 44% studied cells, located north, south-east southwest.