Projected changes in autumn rainfall over West China: Results from an ensemble of dynamical downscaling simulations

Abstract

Autumn rainfall in West China, the last rainy season of China, exerts profound impacts on the economic society, therefore, researches on its changes in the context of a warmer world are crucial for better adaptation to climate change. Using the dynamical downscaling performed by the regional climate model RegCM4 from four global climate models, this study firstly evaluated the fidelity of the RegCM4 simulations on the mean and extreme aspects of autumn rainfall in West China, and then projected their changes during the middle and the end of the 21st century under the RCP4.5 scenario. The evaluations indicate a good performance of the RegCM4 downscaling simulations in reproducing the observed spatial distribution of autumn rainfall amount, wet days, maximum consecutive 5‐day precipitation (RX5day), total extremely wet‐day precipitation (R95p), and consecutive dry days (CDD). Under the RCP4.5 scenario, relative to 1986–2005, the amount of autumn rainfall and the frequency of wet days are projected to increase in the northwestern part of West China and to decrease in its southeastern flank, concurrent with greater changes by the end of the 21st century than by the middle of the 21st century. Such an increase is closely associated with the enhancement of zonal water vapour transport and atmospheric unstable stratification, while the projected decrease is largely related to the reduction of moisture supply. Similar changes are also projected for the precipitation extremes Rx5day and R95p. Corresponding to the changing pattern of autumn rainfall, the CDD is projected to decrease in the northwestern part and to increase in the southeastern part of West China.

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Assessment of model performance of precipitation extremes over the mid-high latitude areas of Northern Hemisphere: from CMIP5 to CMIP6

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