Influence of initial soil moisture in a regional climate model study over West Africa – Part 2: Impact on the climate extremes

Abstract. The influence of soil moisture initial conditions on the climate extreme indices over West Africa was investigated using fourth generation International Centre for Theoretical Physics regional model (non-hydrostatic) coupled with version 4.5 Community Land Model (RegCM4–CLM4.5) at a 25 km spatial resolution. We initialized control experiments reanalysis data from European Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) 20th century (ERA-20C), while we dry and wet maximum minimum values domain, respectively. For each experiment, an ensemble five runs performed 5 years (2001–2005) prescribed 1 June simulations being 4 months (122 d) to September. performance RegCM4–CLM4.5 respect simulating 10 rainfall temperature used in this study is presented. results are then discussed two idealized that most sensitive order highlight impacts beyond limits internal forcing model. Over Central Sahel, (wet) lead decrease (increase) precipitation related number events, but not seen intensity events. Soil unequally affect daily temperatures. strongest impact found temperature: (dry) whole region. temperature.