Do CMIP6 Climate Models Simulate Global or Regional Compound Events Skillfully?

Compound events have the potential to cause high socioeconomic and environmental losses. We examine the ability of the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) models to capture two bivariate compound events: the co-occurrence of heavy rain and strong wind, and heat waves and meteorological drought. We evaluate the models over North America, Europe, Eurasia, and Australia using observations and reanalysis data set spanning 1980–2014. Some of the CMIP6 models capture the return periods of both bivariate compound events over North America, Europe, and Eurasia surprisingly well but perform less well over Australia. For heavy rain and strong wind, this poor performance was particularly clear in northern Australia which suggests limits in simulating tropical and extratropical cyclones, local convection, and mesoscale convective systems. We did not find higher model resolution improved performance in any region. Overall, our results show some CMIP6 models can be used to examine compound events, particularly over North America, Europe, and Eurasia.