Analyzing seasonal to interannual extreme weather and climate variability with the extremes toolkit

The Extremes Toolkit (extRemes) is a graphical user interface (GUI) for extreme-value statistical software designed to facilitate the use of extreme value theory in applications oriented toward weather and climate problems involving extremes (e.g., the annual maximum/minimum tempera ture, three-day accumulated precipitation exceeding a high threshold). The effort is motivated by the continued use of traditional statistical distributions (normal, lognormal, gamma, ...) in situations where extreme value theory is applicable and could provide more meaningful information.

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the use of extRemes with data analyzed previously in weather and climate related studies with an emphasis on analyzing the variability of extreme seasonal to interannual weather and climate observations. A brief introduction to the theory of extremes is given, followed by examples of how it can be applied to meteorological and climatological data using extRemes.

The toolkit is freely available, along with a tutorial explaining how it can be used. Information regarding how to access the toolkit and tutorial are provided. Finally, future additions of the toolkit for handling spatial data are demonstrated.