A Summer School on ‘Attribution and Prediction of Extreme Events’ was organized by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), in collaboration with the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and eight other international co-sponsors, from 21 July to 01 August 2014 in Trieste, Italy. There were 35 international students of which 10 were from Asia-Pacific countries, selected out of 54 applicants and sponsored by Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research, APN. The Centre for Global Sustainability Studies (CGSS), Universiti Sains Malaysia facilitated the participation of the Asia-Pacific participants.

The school focused on three topic areas: (i)statistical theory underpinning extreme values analysis, (ii)detection and attribution of observed changes in the frequency and/or intensity of extremes, and (iii)event attribution, and (iv)the physical mechanisms that are involved in amplifying and/or extending the duration of some specific extreme events such as flooding.

The two-week school comprised lectures and hands on activities by the students. For the 35 international participants the school provided an exclusive learning opportunity, involving a variety of modalities such as self-study, computer based group activities, oral and written presentations. This also included skill enhancement to develop key data resources that are used to place current extremes into a historical context, thus providing insights into some near term prediction of the likelihood of flooding, drought, heat wave etc., enabling improved planning and response to climate disasters.