Spatial and temporal changes in daily temperature extremes in China during 1960–2011

Abstract

Based on daily maximum and minimum temperature data from 437 weather stations over China, this study examined the spatiotemporal change of temperature extremes in China from 1960 to 2011. Results showed a general downward trends in the occurrence of cold days (TX10) and nights (TN10) (base period 1961–1990), but upward tendency on the occurrence of warm days (TX90) and nights (TN90), the temperatures of coldest day (TXn), coldest night (TNn), warmest day (TXx), and warmest night (TNx) in China and most climate regions. At the national scale, TX10 and TN10 have significantly decreased by −1.89 and −4.39 days/decade, and TX90 and TN90 have significantly increased by 2.49 and 4.72 days/decade from 1960 to 2011. The national average trends for TXn, TNn, TXx, and TNx were 0.28, 0.54, 0.17, and 0.27 °C/decade, respectively. The temporal changes of extremes indices showed that changes in cold (warm) relative indices may be primarily related to that of corresponding winter (summer) Tmax and Tmin, respectively. Regionally, the magnitudes of changes in extreme indices decreased from the north to south of China. However, we found significant increase of warm extremes, especially warm days and nights in Southeast China. For most climate regions, the trend magnitudes in warm days/nights were larger than that in cold days/nights, but the trend in coldest temperature was much higher than that in warmest temperature. The trend magnitudes in minimum temperature indices were larger than those based on daily maximum temperature, explaining the faster increase of Tmin than Tmax in China.