Abstract
Understanding the changing patterns of extreme temperatures is important for taking measures to reduce their associated negative impacts. Based on daily temperature data derived from 2272 meteorological stations in China, the spatiotemporal variations in temperature extremes were examined with respect to covariates by means of the Mann–Kendall test and a spatiotemporal model during 1960–2018. The results indicated that the temporal changes in cold extremes showed decreasing trends and warm extremes experienced increasing trends across almost all of China, with mean change rates of −3.9 days, −1.8 days, 3.7 days and 2.3 days per decade for TN10p, TX10p, TN90p and TX90p, respectively. Nighttime warming/cooling was higher than daytime warming/cooling, which indicated that trends in minimum temperature extremes are more rapid than trends in maximum temperature extremes. In addition, the temporal effect on the temperature extremes varied throughout the year, with significant increasing trends in the temporal heterogeneity of warm extremes occurring during 1992–2018. The areas with strong spatial heterogeneity of cool nights mainly included northeastern and central China, and the spatial variation on cool days was more prominent in northern China. For warm nights, the areas showing high spatial heterogeneity were mainly located in the northwestern part of China, while areas for warm days were distributed in northern China. Our results provide meaningful information for a deeper understanding of the spatiotemporal variations in temperature extremes across mainland China.
Highlights
The results show that, compared with that on the indices related to the daily maximum temperature, the E1 Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has a relatively strong negative effect on the indices related to the daily minimum temperature for all of China, which is in accordance with the findings of Shi et al [15]
Strong spatial heterogeneity of temperature extremes was observed across China
The spatial variation was prominent in northern China
Summary
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Fifth Assessment Report, indicated an increase in surface air temperature worldwide during the last several decades, with warming projected to continue in the future [1]. Consistent with global climate change, the number of extreme climate events has increased, with more warm extreme events and fewer cool extreme events occurring on different spatial and temporal scales around the world [2,3,4]. Extreme climate events can cause devastating impacts on natural environments and human societies, such as eco-environmental systems, agricultural products, economic development, social stability, urban planning and human health [5,6,7]. A better understanding of the trends and variations in climate extremes is crucial for making reliable projections of future changes in climate extremes and for addressing the special concerns of scientific researchers and decision-makers
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