Seasonal characteristics of the relationship between daily precipitation intensity and surface temperature

Past studies have argued that the intensity of extreme precipitation events should increase exponentially with temperature. This argument is based on the principle that the atmospheric moisture holding capacity increases according to the Clausius-Clapeyron equation and on the expectation that precipitation formation should follow accordingly. We test the latter assumption by investigating to what extent a relation with temperature can be observed intraseasonally in present-day climate. For this purpose, we use observed and simulated daily surface temperature and precipitation over Europe. In winter a general increase in precipitation intensity is indeed observed, while in summer we find a decrease in precipitation intensity with increasing temperature. We interpret these findings by making use of model results where we can distinguish separate precipitation types and investigate the moisture content in the atmosphere. In winter, the Clausius-Clapeyron relationship sets a limit to the increase in the large-scale precipitation with increasing temperature. Conversely, in summer the availability of moisture, and not the atmosphere's capacity to hold this moisture, is the dominant factor at the daily timescale. For convective precipitation, we find a peak like structure which is similar for all subregions, independent of the mean temperature, contrary to large-scale precipitation which has a more monotonic dependence on temperature.