Correction to: Nature Climate Change https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3320 (2017); published online 30 June 2017

In the version of this Commentary originally published, in Figs 1 and 2 in the main Commentary, as well as Figs 3, 9 and 11 in the Supplementary Information, the colours for HadEX2 and GHCNDEX were incorrectly switched: HadEX2 should have been blue and GHCNDEX should have been red. This has now been corrected in the online versions of the Commentary.