Anthropogenic warming has caused hot droughts more frequently in China

Abstract

Historical records have indicated an increase in high-impact drought occurrences across China during recent decades, but whether this increase is due to natural variability or anthropogenic change remains unclear. Thus, the shift toward dry conditions and their associated attributions across China are discussed in this study, primarily regarding the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). The results show that drought occurrences across China increased consistently during 1951–2014, especially during the recent twenty years. Most of the increased drought events happened under warm-dry conditions that coincided with relatively high temperature anomalies but without large anomalies in annual precipitation, implying an increase in hot drought events across China. Further analysis revealed that the change in drought occurrences were mainly due to the combined activity of external natural forcings and anthropogenic changes across China. However, external natural forcings were mainly responsible for the variability of droughts and anthropogenic influences for their increasing trends, suggesting that anthropogenic warming has increased hot drought occurrences, associated risks and impacts across China. With continued warming in the future, the impact of anthropogenic warming on the increased hot drought events will be further amplified. The probability of warm years is projected to significantly increase, and the occurrence probability of hot drought events (SPEI<−1.0) will increase to nearly 100% by the year 2050, even though the annual precipitation is projected to increase across China in the future.