Taking China's Temperature: Daily Range, Warming Trends, and Regional Variations, 1955–2000

Abstract

In analyzing daily climate data from 305 weather stations in China for the period from 1955 to 2000, the authors found that surface air temperatures are increasing with an accelerating trend after 1990. They also found that the daily maximum (Tmax) and minimum (Tmin) air temperature increased at a rate of 1.27° and 3.23°C (100 yr)−1 between 1955 and 2000. Both temperature trends were faster than those reported for the Northern Hemisphere, where Tmax and Tmin increased by 0.87° and 1.84°C (100 yr)−1 between 1950 and 1993. The daily temperature range (DTR) decreased rapidly by −2.5°C (100 yr)−1 from 1960 to 1990; during that time, minimum temperature increased while maximum temperature decreased slightly. Since 1990, the decline in DTR has halted because Tmax and Tmin increased at a similar pace during the 1990s. Increased minimum and maximum temperatures were most pronounced in northeast China and were lowest in the southwest. Cloud cover and precipitation correlated poorly with the decreasing temperature range. It is argued that a decline in solar irradiance better explains the decreasing range of daily temperatures through its influence on maximum temperature. With declining solar irradiance even on clear days, and with decreases in cloud cover, it is posited that atmospheric aerosols may be contributing to the changing solar irradiance and trends of daily temperatures observed in China.

Detection and attribution of anthropogenic forcing to diurnal temperature range changes from 1950 to 1999: comparing multi-model simulations with observations

“…Wild et al (2007) found a strong connection in the observations between changes in DTR and those in surface solar radiation (from dimming to brightening) during the 1980s and with the increasing GHGs. Liu et al (2004) and Makowski et al (2009) reported a similar DSW-DTR connection. Considering the substantial spatiotemporal variability in cloud cover and precipitation, Zhou et al (2008) suggest that enhanced GHGs and aerosols as a steady and global forcing are likely to largely determine the observed long-term DTR trends at large spatial scales.…”

“…In addition, the models are limited in describing realistic effects of aerosols (including their properties) and cloudaerosol interactions and thus in simulating changes in surface radiation (Ruckstuhl and Norris 2009;Wild 2009). For example, the observed large decreases in DTR over eastern China, where cloudiness decreased and aerosols increased substantially (Kaiser 1998;Liu et al 2004;Zhou et al 2008), and the observed solar ''dimming'' and ''brightening'' over Europe (Ruckstuhl and Norris 2009;Wild 2009), are not realistically simulated. Considering large uncertainties in simulating changes in clouds, aerosols, and hydrological variables (e.g., precipitation, soil moisture) in the models, very likely the missing increasing trend in the simulated cloudiness is a major reason to explain the small DTR trend in the models.…”

“…In fact, TCC over many regions and P in tropical climates have been observed to be increasing. However, coincident decreasing trends in DTR and TCC are observed over some regions such as China and the Sahel (e.g., Kaiser 1998;Liu et al 2004;Zhou et al 2007) and are seen globally over the ALL simulations, suggesting that the longer term variability/trend has different connections between DTR and TCC/P than the interannual variability. Surface radiation will likely change in a warmer and wetter climate.…”

Climate change threatens giant panda protection in the 21st century

“…As a result of all these conservation efforts, the giant panda population in the wild has steadily recovered from 1114 in the 1980s to 1596 at present (State Forestry Administration, 2006). Nevertheless, the population is thought to be vulnerable to the increasingly warmer and drier climate that is expected to occur in this century (Liu et al, 2004;Wang et al, 2010). Climate change may reduce significantly both the area of giant panda habitats (Songer et al, 2012;Fan et al, 2014) and food supplies (Tuanmu et al, 2013) in panda reserves, jeopardizing their effectiveness to safeguard giant panda populations in the future.…”

Impacts of climate change on net primary productivity in arid and semiarid regions of China

“…The rate of change in annual temperature is 0.048 / ℃ yr, which is greater than the global rate of change in annual temperature (0.014 / ℃ yr; Brohan et al, 2006;IPCC, 2007) and in the rate of change in annual temperature in China (0.026 / ℃ yr; Zhai et al, 1999;Liu et al, 2004;Huang et al, 2005). With regard to seasonal dynamics, winter temperatures are increasing, but the trend is not obvious.…”