Australian heatwaves have a significant impact on society. Most previous studies focus on understanding them in terms of frequency, duration, intensity, and timing. However, understanding the spatial characteristics of heatwaves, particularly those occurring in contiguous regions at the same time (here referred to as contiguous heatwaves), is still largely unexplored. Here, we analyse changes in spatial characteristics of contiguous heatwaves in Australia during 1958-2020 using observational data. Our results show that extremely large contiguous heatwaves are covering significantly larger areas and getting significantly longer during the recent period (1989/90-2019/20) compared to the historical period (1958/59-1988/89). We also investigated the association of contiguous heatwaves in Australia with interactions of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) using a large multi-member ensemble of a physical climate model. We found that areal magnitude, total area, median duration, and maximum area of large and extremely large contiguous heatwaves in Australia are significantly higher (lower) during the strong El Niño (Es), strong El Niño co-occurring with strong IOD positive (Es-IPs), and with moderate IOD positive (Es-IPm) (co-occurring strong La Niña with the strong IOD negative (Ls-INs)) seasons relative to the neutral seasons (where both ENSO and IOD are in neutral phase). During the Es, Es-IPm, and Es-IPs seasons, the large-scale physical mechanisms are characterised by anticyclonic highs over the southeast and cyclonic lows over the northwest of Australia, favouring the occurrence and intensification of heatwaves in Australia. These results provide insights into the driving mechanisms of contiguous heatwaves in Australia.

India has experienced remarkable changes in temperature extremes in recent decades due to rapid global warming leading to extreme heat events with disastrous societal impacts. In response to continuing global warming, this study investigates summertime (March to June) heatwave characteristics over India in the present and future climate. During 1951-2020, India Meteorological Department (IMD) observational data show rising trends in heatwave characteristics such as frequency, intensity, duration, and season length, mainly over India’s northwest, central, and south peninsular regions. Further, the present study explores the changes in future heatwave characteristics using the state-of-the-art statistically downscaled bias-corrected climate models data from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) of the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP5-8.5) scenario. This study uses varying hazard thresholds, namely fixed (time-invariant historical climatological threshold) and decadal moving thresholds (time-varying future climatological threshold), to define heatwaves and examine the future changes in heatwave characteristics over India. Results show a significant increase in mean summertime heatwaves defined using fixed thresholds in terms of their frequency, duration, number, amplitude, cumulative magnitude, and season length in the near future (2025-2054) and the far future (2065-2094) compared to the baseline period (1985-2014) over much of India, with the most substantial increases seen in the far future. However, heatwaves defined using the decadal moving thresholds show no significant changes in their characteristics during the near future but a substantial increase in the far future over many parts of India. This work is the first attempt to use bias-corrected CMIP6 models data to project heatwave characteristics utilizing the concept of the varying hazard thresholds across India. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive assessment of climate change’s impact on Indian heatwaves, which can help in planning better adaptation and mitigation strategies.

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