The file contains the data to create the European summer heatwave catalogue using ERA5 (1982-2022) high boreal summer (July and August) daily maximum temperatures (T2max) linearly interpolated to the MPI-ESM-HR grid.
Heatwaves are identified with a percentile-based heatwave definition. A heatwave day is identified on a grid-point level when T2max exceeds a threshold for at least three consecutive days. The threshold is computed for each grid-point as the 90th percentile based on a centered 15-day running window and 1982-2011 reference period.
The intensity of heatwaves is expressed with the cumulative heat. The cumulative heat integrates over July and August the difference between T2max and the threshold during heatwave days. The cumulative heat of each grid-point is weighted by the cosine of the latitude.