Rapid Increase in the Compound Droughts and Heat Waves in China
Abstract
Droughts and heat waves both are natural extreme climate events occurring in most parts of the world. Recent studies have begun to explore trends and changes in compound extremes, and recognized the necessity of jointly investigating climate events. Compound extremes, which are also referred to as simultaneous, concurrent, or coincident extremes, are commonly defined as the occurrence of multiple events that lead to extreme impacts. To understand the spatio-temporal characteristics of droughts and heat waves in China, we examine changes in droughts, heat waves and the compound of both during 1961-2017 based on high resolution gridded monthly sc_PDSI and daily temperature data. Results show that North China and Northwest China are the two regions that experience the most frequent droughts, while Central China is the least drought-affected region. Significant drought decreasing trends were mostly observed Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Tibet provinces, while the belt region between Yunnan and Heilongjiang provinces experienced significant drought increasing trends. Heat waves occur more frequently than droughts, and the increase of heat wave occurrence is also more obvious. The increasing of heat wave occurrence becomes unprecedentedly since the 2000s. The compound droughts and heat waves are mild during the 1960s to 1980s and begin to increase in 1990s. Further, the significant increasing trends of the percentage of compound droughts and heat waves to droughts are observed in entire China, and nearly more than 90% drought occurrences are accompanied by one or more heat waves in the 2010s. The results could provide useful insights for regional water resource management and planning, agriculture production, and ecosystem protection in China.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.H41N1908Y
- Keywords:
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- 1803 Anthropogenic effects;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1821 Floods;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 1825 Geomorphology: fluvial;
- HYDROLOGY;
- 4303 Hydrological;
- NATURAL HAZARDS