Anomalous conditions in the oceans and atmosphere have the potential to beused to enhance the predictability of flood events, enabling earlier warnings toreduce risk. In the Amazon basin, extreme flooding is consistently attributedto warmer or cooler conditions in the tropical Pacific and Atlantic oceans, withsome evidence linking floods to other hydroclimatic drivers such as theMadden–Julian Oscillation (MJO). This review evaluates the impact of severalhydroclimatic drivers on rainfall and river discharge regimes independently,aggregating all the information of previous studies to provide an up-to-datedepiction of what we currently know and do not know about how variationsin climate impact flooding in the Amazon. Additionally, 34 major flood eventsthat have occurred since 1950 in the Amazon and their attribution to climateanomalies are documented and evaluated. This review finds that ...

Flooding in the Amazon basin is frequently attributed to modes of large-scale climate variability, but little attention is paid to how these modes influence the timing and duration of floods despite their importance to early warning systems and the significant impacts that these flood characteristics can have on communities. In this study, river discharge data from the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS 2.1) and observed data at 58 gauging stations are used to examine whether positive or negative phases of several Pacific and Atlantic indices significantly alter the characteristics of river flows throughout the Amazon basin (1979–2015). Results show significant changes in both flood magnitude and duration, particularly in the north-eastern Amazon for negative El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phases when the sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly is positioned in the central tro...

Anomalous conditions in the oceans and atmosphere have the potential to beused to enhance the predictability of flood events, enabling earlier warnings toreduce risk. In the Amazon basin, extreme flooding is consistently attributedto warmer or cooler conditions in the tropical Pacific and Atlantic oceans, withsome evidence linking floods to other hydroclimatic drivers such as theMadden–Julian Oscillation (MJO). This review evaluates the impact of severalhydroclimatic drivers on rainfall and river discharge regimes independently,aggregating all the information of previous studies to provide an up-to-datedepiction of what we currently know and do not know about how variationsin climate impact flooding in the Amazon. Additionally, 34 major flood eventsthat have occurred since 1950 in the Amazon and their attribution to climateanomalies are documented and evaluated. This review finds that ...

International humanitarian organisations increasingly turn to forecast teams to support the coordination of efforts to respond to disasters caused by hazards such as tropical cyclones and large-scale fluvial floods. Such disasters often occur where there is limited local capacity or information available to support decision making and so global forecasting capacity is utilised to provide impact-based flood forecast bulletins. A multidisciplinary team joined together to provide forecast bulletins and expertise for such events through the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO). This paper captures the successes and challenges from two cyclones: Hurricane Iota in Central America (November 2020) and Cyclone Eloise in Mozambique (January 2021). Recommendations to improve global forecasting systems are made which will benefit the international community of researchers and practi...