Abstract
Autumn rain of West China is a typical climate phenomenon, which is characterized by continuous rainy days and large rainfall amounts and exerts profound impacts on the economic society. Based on daily precipitation data from 524 observation stations for the period of 1961–2014, this article comprehensively examined secular changes in autumn rain of West China, including its amount, frequency, intensity, and associated extremes. The results generally show a significant reduction of rainfall amount and rainy days and a significant enhancement of mean rainfall intensity for the average of West China during autumn (September–October) since 1961. Meanwhile, decreasing trends are consistently observed in the maximum daily rainfall, the longest consecutive rainy days, the greatest consecutive rainfall amount, and the frequencies of the extreme daily rainfall, consecutive rainfall, and consecutive rainfall process. Further analysis indicates that the decreases of autumn rainfall and related extremes in West China are associated with the decreases in both water vapor content and atmospheric unstable stratification during the past decades. On the regional scale, some differences exist in the changes of autumn rainfall between the eastern and western parts of West China. Besides, it is found that the autumn rainy season tends to start later and terminate earlier particularly in eastern West China.
Highlights
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2013) in its Fifth Assessment Report demonstrated from multiple lines of evidence that there is an unequivocal warming of the climate system since the second half of the twentieth century
Further analysis indicates that the decreases of autumn rainfall and related extremes in West China are associated with the decreases in both water vapor content and atmospheric unstable stratification during the past decades
Based on the observed daily precipitation data from 524 meteorological stations for the period of 1961–2014, this study performed a detailed analysis on the secular change in autumn rain of West China
Summary
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2013) in its Fifth Assessment Report demonstrated from multiple lines of evidence that there is an unequivocal warming of the climate system since the second half of the twentieth century. A decrease in rainy days has been observed over most regions (Zhai et al 1999, 2005; Liu et al 2005; Qian et al 2007; You et al 2008; Zhou et al 2016) Another feature related to precipitation changes in China is the interdecadal variation of summer precipitation pattern. One more transition from dry phase to wet phase in the early 1990s in South China has been highlighted (Wu et al 2010; Fan et al 2014; Xu et al 2015) These studies have largely improved our understanding on China’s precipitation change in the context of global warming.
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