Process-Oriented Compound Long-Duration Dry and Hot Events in China: Atmospheric Conditions, Moisture, and Heat Budget Analyses

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Abstract Summertime compound dry and hot events pose severe threats to agricultural production and human health, especially those with a long duration. Considering the joint evolution of such hazards in space and time, spatiotemporal compound long-duration dry and hot (SLDDH) events in China during 1961–2022 are identified with a process-oriented method. Here, we investigate the associated large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns and the physical processes causing their precipitation and temperature anomalies. In all regions of China, this persistent dry–hot compound extreme is accompanied by anomalous high pressure systems along with enhanced descending motion, increased net surface solar radiation, and decreased water vapor flux convergence. Moisture budget diagnosis shows that precipitation deficits during the SLDDH events are produced primarily by the suppressed vertical moisture advection associated with the dynamical contribution of anomalous subsidence, while the thermodynamic process due to the anomaly in atmospheric moisture content makes a small contribution. Horizontal temperature advection generally plays a negative role in sustaining SLDDH events, while it helps trigger the events in North China. In most regions, adiabatic warming due to abnormal subsidence plays a dominant role in determining the near-surface high temperatures during the long-lasting warm and dry periods, whereas diabatic heating has a cooling or small effect therein. However, in some northern areas such as North China and northern Xinjiang, hot extremes during SLDDH events arise from a combination of diabatic heating and adiabatic warming. This study thus quantifies and reveals the crucial factors leading to the severity of compound dry and hot events.