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The last interglacial (LIG; Marine Isotope Substage 5e, ~127–117 ka) experienced globally warmer than modern temperatures; however, profound differences in regional climate occurred that are relevant to the assessment of future climate change scenarios. Tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) and hydrology are intrinsic to the spatiotemporal evolution of past and future climate. We present eight monthly resolved coral Sr/Ca and δ18O records (130–118 ka) to reconstruct mean western tropical Atlantic SST and seawater δ18O changes during the LIG. Cooler and fresher than modern surface waters are indicated for the middle of the LIG at ~126 ka. This was followed by a rapid transition to modern‐like SSTs and salinities that characterized the remaining part of the LIG. Our results, which account for differences found among corals, proxies, and SST calibration uncertainties, agree with western tropical Atlantic sediment records. Together, they suggest that an oceanic regime existed that differed from today.

The Red Sea is a deep marine basin often considered as small‐scale version of the global ocean. Hydrographic observations and ocean‐atmosphere modeling indicate Red Sea deep water was episodically renewed by wintertime open‐ocean deep convections during 1982–2001, suggesting a renewal time on the order of a decade. However, the long‐term pacing of Red Sea deep water renewals is largely uncertain. We use an annually resolved coral oxygen isotope record of winter surface water conditions to show that the late twentieth century deep water renewals were probably unusual in the context of the preceding ~100 years. More frequent major events are detected during the late Little Ice Age, particularly during the early nineteenth century characterized by large tropical volcanic eruptions. We conclude that Red Sea deep water renewal time is on the order of a decade up to a century, depending on the mean climatic conditions and large‐scale interannual climate forcing.

The standard approach to flood frequency analysis (FFA) fits mathematical functions to sequences of historic flood data and extrapolates the tails of the distribution to estimate the magnitude and likelihood of extreme floods. Here, we identify the most exceptional floods in the United States as compared against other major floods at the same location, and evaluate how the flood-of-record (Qmax) influences FFA estimates. On average, floods-of-record are 20% larger by discharge than their second-place counterparts (Q2), and 212 gages (7.3%) have Qmax:Q2 ratios greater than two. There is no clear correspondence between the Qmax:Q2 ratio and median instantaneous discharge, and exceptional floods do not become less likely with time. Excluding Qmax from the FFA causes the median 100-year flood to decline by −10.5%, the 200-year flood by −11.8%, and the 500-year flood by −13.4%. Even when floods are modelled using a heavy tail distribution, the removal of Qmax yields significantly “lighter” tails and underestimates the risk of large floods. Despite the temporal extension of systematic hydrological observations in the United States, FFA is still sensitive to the presence of extreme events within the sample used to calculate the frequency curve.

River flooding is among the most destructive of natural hazards globally, causing widespread loss of life, damage to infrastructure and economic deprivation. Societies are currently under increasing threat from such floods, predominantly from increasing exposure of people and assets in flood‐prone areas, but also as a result of changes in flood magnitude, frequency, and timing. Accurate flood hazard and risk assessment are therefore crucial for the sustainable development of societies worldwide. With a paucity of hydrological measurements, evidence from the field offers the only insight into truly extreme events and their variability in space and time. Historical, botanical, and geological archives have increasingly been recognized as valuable sources of extreme flood event information. These different archives are here reviewed with a particular focus on the recording mechanisms of flood information, the historical development of the methodological approaches and the type of information that those archives can provide. These studies provide a wealthy dataset of hundreds of historical and palaeoflood series, whose analysis reveals a noticeable dominance of records in Europe. After describing the diversity of flood information provided by this dataset, we identify how these records have improved and could further improve flood hazard assessments and, thereby, flood management and mitigation plans.

Whereas millennial to submillennial climate variability has been identified during the current interglacial period, past interglacial variability features remain poorly explored because of lacking data at sufficient temporal resolutions. Here we present new deuterium data from the EPICA Dome C ice core, documenting at decadal resolution temperature changes occurring over the East Antarctic plateau during the warmer-than-today last interglacial. Expanding previous evidence of instabilities during the last interglacial, multicentennial subevents are identified and labeled for the first time in a past interglacial context. A variance analysis further reveals two major climatic features. First, an increase in variability is detected prior to the glacial inception, as already observed at the end of Marine Isotopic Stage 11 in the same core. Second, the overall variance level is systematically higher during the last interglacial than during the current one, suggesting that a warmer East Antarctic climate may also be more variable.

The climate during the Cenozoic era changed in several steps from ice-free poles and warm conditions to ice-covered poles and cold conditions. Since the 1950s, a body of information on ice volume and temperature changes has been built up predominantly on the basis of measurements of the oxygen isotopic composition of shells of benthic foraminifera collected from marine sediment cores. The statistical methodology of time series analysis has also evolved, allowing more information to be extracted from these records. Here we provide a comprehensive view of Cenozoic climate evolution by means of a coherent and systematic application of time series analytical tools to each record from a compilation spanning the interval from 4 to 61 Myr ago. We quantitatively describe several prominent features of the oxygen isotope record, taking into account the various sources of uncertainty (including measurement, proxy noise, and dating errors). The estimated transition times and amplitudes allow us to assess causal climatological-tectonic influences on the following known features of the Cenozoic oxygen isotopic record: Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Eocene-Oligocene Transition, Oligocene-Miocene Boundary, and the Middle Miocene Climate Optimum. We further describe and causally interpret the following features: Paleocene-Eocene warming trend, the two-step, long-term Eocene cooling, and the changes within the most recent interval (Miocene-Pliocene). We review the scope and methods of constructing Cenozoic stacks of benthic oxygen isotope records and present two new latitudinal stacks, which capture besides global ice volume also bottom water temperatures at low (less than 30°) and high latitudes. This review concludes with an identification of future directions for data collection, statistical method development, and climate modeling.

River flooding is among the most destructive of natural hazards globally, causing widespread loss of life, damage to infrastructure and economic deprivation. Societies are currently under increasing threat from such floods, predominantly from increasing exposure of people and assets in flood-prone areas, but also as a result of changes in flood magnitude, frequency, and timing. Accurate flood hazard and risk assessment are therefore crucial for the sustainable development of societies worldwide. With a paucity of hydrological measurements, evidence from the field offers the only insight into truly extreme events and their variability in space and time. Historical, botanical, and geological archives have increasingly been recognized as valuable sources of extreme flood event information. These different archives are here reviewed with a particular focus on the recording mechanisms of flood information, the historical development of the methodological approaches and the type of information that those archives can provide. These studies provide a wealthy dataset of hundreds of historical and palaeoflood series, whose analysis reveals a noticeable dominance of records in Europe. After describing the diversity of flood information provided by this dataset, we identify how these records have improved and could further improve flood hazard assessments and, thereby, flood management and mitigation plans.