Articles | Volume 17, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-6621-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Dheed: an ERA5 based global database of compound dry and hot extreme events from 1950 to 2023
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- Final revised paper (published on 28 Nov 2025)
- Preprint (discussion started on 18 Oct 2024)
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor
| : Report abuse
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RC1: 'Comment on essd-2024-396', Anonymous Referee #1, 16 Nov 2024
- AC2: 'Reply on RC1', Melanie Weynants, 14 Mar 2025
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RC2: 'Comment on essd-2024-396', Anonymous Referee #2, 18 Dec 2024
- AC1: 'Reply on RC2', Melanie Weynants, 14 Mar 2025
Peer review completion
AR – Author's response | RR – Referee report | ED – Editor decision | EF – Editorial file upload
AR by Melanie Weynants on behalf of the Authors (28 Mar 2025)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
Manuscript
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (28 Mar 2025) by Jing Wei
RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (07 Apr 2025)
RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (06 May 2025)
ED: Reject (12 May 2025) by Jing Wei
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (25 Jun 2025) by Jing Wei
AR by Melanie Weynants on behalf of the Authors (06 Aug 2025)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
Manuscript
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (12 Aug 2025) by Jing Wei
RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (16 Aug 2025)
RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (26 Aug 2025)
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (06 Sep 2025) by Jing Wei
AR by Melanie Weynants on behalf of the Authors (18 Sep 2025)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
Manuscript
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (20 Sep 2025) by Jing Wei
RR by Paolo De Luca (07 Oct 2025)
RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (22 Oct 2025)
ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (26 Oct 2025) by Jing Wei
AR by Melanie Weynants on behalf of the Authors (31 Oct 2025)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
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ED: Publish as is (04 Nov 2025) by Jing Wei
AR by Melanie Weynants on behalf of the Authors (05 Nov 2025)
Manuscript
The manuscript essd-2024-396 presents a dataset identifying historical compound dry and hot extreme events derived from ERA5 global meteorological data. The study's focus on compound events, which are more damaging than univariate extremes, is timely and valuable for the community. However, several issues require attention to enhance the dataset's reliability and utility.
Major Concerns:
The data analysis indicates a non-significant trend in heat extreme day numbers globally from 1970 to 2022. This finding contradicts numerous studies showing that heatwaves have become more frequent and severe over time. This discrepancy should be thoroughly investigated, as it undermines the reliability of the dataset.
a. The dataset relies exclusively on ERA5 data. The authors should include a literature review demonstrating that ERA5 is widely accepted for historical drought and heat stress analyses.
b. The use of the 1% threshold for defining "extreme" events requires justification through references to relevant literature.
c. The parameterization G=0.5Rn for ground heat flux is uncommon as this ratio is typically associated with vegetation cover. Now the impact from the surface cover is missing. This choice should be explained or supported with references.
The proposed methodology lacks seasonal detrending, a standard preprocessing step in drought and heat analyses. Without removing seasonal cycles, anomalies are compared to absolute values rather than seasonal baselines. For example, warmer days in spring might qualify as heat stress even if their absolute temperatures are lower than those in summer. Similarly, seasonal cycles in PEI could influence water stress results. This methodological issue weakens the robustness of the findings and should be addressed.
The authors conducted a qualitative literature survey of extreme events captured or missed by the dataset. This evaluation is commendable but could be improved by quantitatively summarizing omission and commission errors. These statistics should also be briefly mentioned in the abstract for clarity.
Figure 6 presents trend analyses across continents. A pixelwise global trend map would provide a more detailed spatial representation and is strongly recommended.
The dataset should be compared with drought and heat indices from other sources over a long time span to validate its reliability.
Additional Comments: