Abstract
Persistent extreme heat events (PEHEs) exert a more negative impact on society, including agriculture, plant phenology, power production and human health, compared to general EHEs. The temporal and spatial characteristics of summer PEHEs in eastern China were analysed based on a daily maximum temperature dataset from 759 stations over the period of 1961–2018. The results show the following: Persistent distributions of PEHEs show that they are characterized by an exponential decay with a drop in the decay rate. In terms of spatial distribution, there is an apparent regional difference in the duration of PEHEs. North China is dominated by multi-frequency and short-duration EHEs, while South China is the opposite. PEHEs in North China and the Huanghuai region mainly occur in June-July but mostly in July and August in South China. Strongly responding to global warming, the frequency and duration of PEHEs in North China have increased since the 1990s. However, the frequency of PEHEs in North China and the Huanghuai region has shown opposite trends in June-July since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Affected by the atmospheric circulations, the regional differences in PEHE frequency are also apparent. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the PEHEs in North China and the Huanghuai area have shown an increasing trend in August. The short-term PEHEs in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and South China increased rapidly in the 2000s, while long-term PEHEs increased in the 2010s. This study implies that attention should be paid to not only the frequency of EH days but also to the persistence of EHE which is a key characteristic of damaging EH.
Highlights
According to the special report on climate change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, human-induced warming is approximately 1.0°C (± 0.2°C) above pre-industrial levels, increasing at 0.2°C (± 0.1°C) per decade (Allen et al 2018)
The results show the following: Persistent distributions of Persistent extreme heat events (PEHEs) show that they are characterized by an exponential decay with a drop in the decay rate
For PEHEs that lasted more than 3 days, there was no significant difference in the average frequency of the 4 regions (0.91 (NC), 1.16 (HHV), 1.06 (YRV), 1.01 (SC), respectively)
Summary
According to the special report on climate change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, human-induced warming is approximately 1.0°C (± 0.2°C) above pre-industrial levels, increasing at 0.2°C (± 0.1°C) per decade (Allen et al 2018). In 2013, large-scale PEHEs occurred in South China, and the highest temperature in many places continuously broke historical records The duration of this event (from June 28 to August 22, lasting 56 days) is historically rare (Sun et al 2014; Peng et al 2016; Yang and Feng 2016). The impact region of extreme high-temperature events in China has increased from 12–43% of the country's land area (Qin et al 2015). Both the difference in the duration and the scope of occurrence of PEHEs further result in a significant impact of differences. This article conducts a systematic analysis of PEHEs in eastern China and performs a detailed analysis of the regional characteristics, intraseasonal differences, and interdecadal variations of PEHEs of different durations to explore the response of PEHEs to global warming, striving for a deeper understanding of the changing characteristics of PEHEs
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
