The Spatiotemporal Variation Characteristics and Impacts of Summer Heatwaves, Droughts, and Compound Drought and Heatwave Events in Jiangsu Province, China

Abstract

This study used the “Daily meteorological dataset of basic meteorological elements of China National Surface Weather Station (V3.0)” and applied the absolute threshold method and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index to identify heatwave events and drought events. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal evolution patterns of three types of summer disaster events, namely, heatwave events, drought events, and compound drought and heatwave events, in Jiangsu Province from 1960 to 2018. Additionally, it investigated and verified the concurrent historical data of the identified years with the most severe occurrence of compound drought and heatwave events and calculated the monthly drought centers and summer accumulations of the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI-3). The results indicate that over the 59 years analyzed, the number of days with a threshold of 35 °C, which were considered hot days, was 503.2, accounting for 9.27% of the total summer days in Jiangsu Province. Both the number of hot days and the frequency of heatwave events showed a clear increasing trend from the northeastern coastal areas to the southwestern regions of Jiangsu Province. The total frequency of drought events at different stations in Jiangsu Province from 1960 to 2018 fell within the range of 50–64. The fitted slope of the frequency of compound drought and heatwave events in Jiangsu Province was −0.021 for the period 1960 to 1989, and 0.079 for the period 1990 to 2018, indicating a higher frequency compared with the preceding 30 years. This trend aligned with the rise in heatwave events experienced in Jiangsu Province in recent years. The frequency and duration of compound drought and heatwave events in Jiangsu Province exhibited an increasing spatial pattern from the southwestern parts to the northeastern parts. This study’s verification established that the identification of compound drought and heatwave events was relatively accurate.