Abstract

Based on the observations from 239 meteorological stations located in Central China (Henan, Hubei and Hunan provinces), this paper focuses on the climate change facts during 1961–2010. There was a significant increasing trend in annual mean temperature for Central China during 1961–2010. The increasing rate was 0.15°C per decade, which was lower than the national trend. Since the mid-1980s, temperature increasing was obvious. Large increasing rate was observed in the mid-eastern part of Central China. For the four seasons, the increasing rate in winter was the largest (0.27°C per decade). The increasing rate in the annual mean minimum temperature was larger than that in the annual mean maximum temperature from 1961 to 2010. As a result, the diurnal range of temperature decreased at the rate of –0.10°C per decade. The extreme high temperature events were increasing while the extreme low temperature events were significantly decreasing. There was no obvious trend in annual precipitation for Central China during 1961–2010. Precipitation in summer and winter significantly increased, change of precipitation in spring was not obvious, precipitation in autumn was decreasing. The decreasing rate of annual rainy days was –3.4 d per decade. The precipitation intensity increased at the rate of 0.25 mm d–1 per decade. Heavy-rain days significantly increased. Spring and summer started earlier while autumn and winter started later. As a result, spring and summer duration was expanding whereas autumn and winter duration shortened. Wan, S.-Q., Y. Gao, B. Zhou, et al., 2013: Climate change facts in Central China during 1961–2010.Adv. Clim. Change Res., 4 (2), doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1248.2013.103.

Abstract

In Central China, the obvious climate change has happened along with global warming. Based on the observational analysis, the climate change has significant effects, both positive and negative, in every field within the study area, and with the harmful effects far more prevalent. Under the scenario A1B, it is reported that temperature, precipitation, days of heat waves and extreme precipitation intensity will increase at respective rates of 0.38°C per decade, 12.6 mm per decade, 6.4 d and 47 mm per decade in the 21st century. It is widely believed that these climate changes in the future will result in some apparent impacts on agro-ecosystems, water resources, wetland ecosystem, forest ecosystem, human health, energy sectors and other sensitive fields in Central China. Due to the limited scientific knowledge and researches, there are still some shortages in the climate change assessment methodologies and many uncertainties in the climate prediction results. Therefore, it is urgent and essential to increase the studies of the regional climate change adaptation, extend the research fields, and enhance the studies in the extreme weather and climate events to reduce the uncertainties of the climate change assessments. Ren, Y.-J., J.-X. Cui, S.-Q. Wan, et al., 2013: Climate change impacts on central China and adaptation measures. Adv . Clim . Change Res ., 4 (4), doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1248.2013.215.