Global warming and regional rainfall: The difference between average and high intensity rainfalls

Abstract Comparison of rainfall during cold and warm periods within instrumental records has been useful in developing quantitative climate scenarios in the face of prospective global warming. In south‐eastern Australia, it is known that a warm period in the Southern Hemisphere in the latter part of this century coincided with greater rainfall, especially during summer months. In this study, based on daily rainfall data from 17 stations with longest record lengths on the Southern Tablelands, Australia, it is observed that high intensity rainfall does not necessarily follow the same pattern. In fact, the difference between rainfall in a warm and wet and a cold and dry period could decrease as the critical rainfall intensity increases.