Changes in Climate Factors and Extreme Climate Events in South China during 1961–2010

Abstract

Daily climate data at 110 stations during 1961–2010 were selected to examine the changing characteristics of climate factors and extreme climate events in South China. The annual mean surface air temperature has increased significantly by 0.16°C per decade, most notably in the Pearl River Delta and in winter. The increase rate of the annual extreme minimum temperature (0.48°C per decade) is over twice that of the annual extreme maximum temperature (0.20°C per decade), and the increase of the mean temperature is mainly the result of the increase of the extreme minimum temperature. The increase rate of high-temperature days (1.1 d per decade) is close to the decrease rate of low-temperature days (–1.3 d per decade). The rainfall has not shown any significant trend, but the number of rainy days has decreased and the rain intensity has increased. The regional mean sunshine duration has a significant decreasing trend of –40.9 h per decade, and the number of hazy days has a significant increasing trend of 6.3 d per decade. The decrease of sunshine duration is mainly caused by the increase of total cloud, not by the increase of hazy days in South China. Both the regional mean pan evaporation and mean wind speed have significant decreasing trends of –65.9 mm per decade and –0.11 m s−1per decade, respectively. The decrease of both sunshine duration and mean wind speed plays an important role in the decrease of pan evaporation. The number of landing tropical cyclones has an insignificant decreasing trend of –0.6 per decade, but their intensities show a weak increasing trend. The formation location of tropical cyclones landing in South China has converged towards 10–19°N, and the landing position has shown a northward trend. The date of the first landfall tropical cyclone postpones 1.8 d per decade, and the date of the last landfall advances 3.6 d per decade, resulting in reduction of the typhoon season by 5.4 d per decade. CitationDu, Y.-D., H. Ai, H.-L. Duan, et al., 2013: Changes in climate factors and extreme climate events in South China during 1961–2010. Adv. Clim. Change Res.,4(1), doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1248.2013.001. Editor’s notesThe Working Group (WG) Reports and Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) will be completed in 2013/2014. In order to address climate change, China Meteorological Administration (CMA) has launched climate change assessment reports since August 2008 for East China, South China, Central China, North China, Northeast China, Northwest China, Southwest China, and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. This is the first effort addressing climate change at a regional scale in China and among the first efforts globally. In order to ensure the quality of the report, CMA has organized hundreds of experts from CMA, colleges and universities, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and used a workflow similar to that of the IPCC AR5. The methods of field observation, data analysis, forecasting models and literature review have been used in these reports. Until now, eight regional assessment reports are being published. This journal will continuously publish the studies in three repeating sessions: climate change facts, impact assessment and adaptation, and mitigation, in order to provide the readers with this reference.