Public perceptions of rainfall change in India

People’s perceptions of changes in local weather patterns are an important precursor to proactive adaptation to climate change. In this paper, we consider public perceptions of changes in average rainfall in India, analyzing the relationship between perceptions and the instrumental record. Using data from a national sample survey, we find that local instrumental records of precipitation are a strong predictor of perceived declines in rainfall. Perceptions of decreasing rainfall were also associated with perceptions of changes in extreme weather events, such as decreasing frequency of floods and severe storms, increasing frequency of droughts, and decreasing predictability of the monsoon. Higher social vulnerability—including low perceived adaptive capacity and greater food and livelihood dependence on local weather—was also associated with perceptions of decreasing rainfall. While both urban and rural respondents were likely to perceive local changes in precipitation, we show that rural respondents in general were more sensitive to actual changes in precipitation. Individual perceptions of changes in local climate may play an important role in shaping vulnerability to global climate change, adaptive behavior, and support for adaptation and mitigation policies. Awareness of local climate change is therefore particularly important in regions where much of the population is highly exposed and sensitive to the impacts of climate change.     

Precipitation extremes in the Yangtze River Basin,China: regional frequency and spatial–temporal patterns

Regional frequency analysis and spatial–temporal patterns of precipitation extremes are investigated based on daily precipitation data covering 1960–2009 using the index-flood L-moments method together with some advanced statistical tests and spatial analysis techniques. The results indicate that: (1) the entire Yangtze River basin can be divided into six homogeneous regions in terms of extreme daily precipitation index. Goodness-of-fit test indicates that Pearson type III (PE3, three parameters), general extreme-value (GEV, three parameters), and general normal (GNO, three parameters) perform well in fitting regional precipitation extremes; (2) the regional growth curves for each homogeneous region with 99 % error bands show that the quantile estimates are reliable enough and can be used when return periods are less than 100 years, and the results indicate that extreme precipitation events are highly probable to occur in regions V and VI, and hence higher risk of floods and droughts; and (3) spatial patterns of annual extreme daily precipitation with return period of 20 years indicate that precipitation amount increases gradually from the upper to the lower Yangtze River basin, showing higher risks of floods and droughts in the middle and lower Yangtze River basin, and this result is in good agreement with those derived from regional growth curves.     

IPCC AR6报告关于不同类型干旱变化研究的新进展与启示

基于IPCC第一工作组(WGI)第六次评估报告(AR6),从干旱的定义和类型、干旱的驱动因素、监测到的干旱变化、干旱的归因以及预估5个方面进行了分析和总结.IPCC评估指出:(1)在全球变暖的背景下,监测到的气象和农业干旱的变化在全球尺度上并不显著,但干旱频发区域呈现不同程度的增加趋势.这种增加的趋势表明,人为气候变化...     

Spatiotemporal drought variability in northwestern Africa over the last nine centuries

Changes in precipitation patterns and the frequency and duration of drought are likely to be the feature of anthropogenic climate change that will have the most direct and most immediate consequences for human populations. The latest generation of state-of-the-art climate models project future widespread drying in the subtropics. Here, we reconstruct spatially-complete gridded Palmer drought severity index values back to A.D. 1179 over Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The reconstructions provide long-term context for northwest African hydroclimatology, revealing large-scale regional droughts prior to the sixteenth century, as well as more heterogeneous patterns in sixteenth, eighteenth, and twentieth century. Over the most recent decades a shift toward dry conditions over the region is observed, which is consistent with general circulation model projections of greenhouse gas forced enhanced regional subtropical drought.     

Future impacts of global warming and reforestation on drought patterns over West Africa

This study investigates how a large-scale reforestation in Savanna (8–12°N, 20°W–20°E) could affect drought patterns over West Africa in the future (2031–2060) under the RCP4.5 scenario. Simulations from two regional climate models (RegCM4 and WRF) were analyzed for the study. The study first evaluated the performance of both RCMs in simulating the present-day climate and then applied the models to investigate the future impacts of global warming and reforestation on the drought patterns. The simulated and observed droughts were characterized with the Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), and the drought patterns were classified using a Self-organizing Map (SOM) technique. The models capture essential features in the seasonal rainfall and temperature fields (including the Saharan Heat Low), but struggle to reproduce the onset and retreat of the West African Monsoon as observed. Both RCMs project a warmer climate (about 1–2 °C) over West Africa in the future. They do not reach a consensus on future change in rainfall, but they agree on a future increase in frequency of severe droughts (by about 2 to 9 events per decade) over the region. They show that reforestation over the Savanna could reduce the future warming by 0.1 to 0.8 °C and increase the precipitation by 0.8 to 1.2 mm per day. However, the impact of reforestation on the frequency of severe droughts is twofold. While reforestation decreases the droughts frequency (by about 1–2 events per decade) over the Savanna and Guinea coast, it increases droughts frequency (by 1 event per decade) over the Sahel, especially in July to September. The results of this study have application in using reforestation to mitigate impacts of climate change in West Africa.     

Tree-ring reconstructed megadroughts over North America since a.d. 1300

Tree-ring reconstructed summer Palmer Drought Severity Indices (PDSI) are used to identify decadal droughts more severe and prolonged than any witnessed during the instrumental period. These “megadroughts” are identified at two spatial scales, the North American continental scale (exclusive of Alaska and boreal Canada) and at the sub-continental scale over western North America. Intense decadal droughts have had significant environmental and socioeconomic impacts, as is illustrated with historical information. Only one prolonged continent-wide megadrought during the past 500 years exceeded the decadal droughts witnessed during the instrumental period, but three megadroughts occurred over the western sector of North America from a.d. 1300 to 1900. The early 20th century pluvial appears to have been unmatched at either the continental or sub-continental scale during the past 500 to 700 years. The decadal droughts of the 20th century, and the reconstructed megadroughts during the six previous centuries, all covered large sectors of western North America and in some cases extended into the eastern United States. All of these persistent decadal droughts included shorter duration cells of regional drought (sub-decadal  ≈  6 years), most of which resemble the regional patterns of drought identified with monthly and annual data during the 20th century. These well-known regional drought patterns are also characterized by unique monthly precipitation climatologies. Intense sub-decadal drought shifted among these drought regions during the modern and reconstructed multi-year droughts, which prolonged large-scale drought and resulted in the regimes of megadrought.     

Future Changes of Drought and Flood Events in China under a Global Warming Scenario

This study investigates the impact of global warming on drought/flood patterns in China at the end of the 21st century based on the simulations of 22 global climate models and a regional climate model(RegCM3) under the SRES(Special Report on Emissions Scenarios) A1B scenario.The standardized precipitation index(SPI),which has well performance in monitoring the drought/flood characteristics(in terms of their intensity,duration,and spatial extent) in China,is used in this study.The projected results of 22 coupled models and the RegCM3 simulation are consistent.These models project a decrease in the frequency of droughts in most parts of northern China and a slight increase in the frequency in some parts of southern China.Considering China as a whole,the spatial extents of droughts are projected to be significantly reduced.In contrast,future flood events over most parts of China are projected to occur more frequently with stronger intensity and longer duration than those prevalent currently.Additionally,the spatial extents of flood events are projected to significantly increase.     

植被对干旱趋势的影响

历史干旱事件的观测和数值研究表明,植被可通过地—气水分、能量和其他通量交换影响和反馈干旱.本研究旨在了解气候变化情形下植被对干旱趋势的影响和机制.应用美国大陆七个动力气候降尺度区域气候变化情景,计算和分析了现在和未来的干旱指数、空间分布和季节变化.通过比较同一气候区两种植被类型区域干旱强度和频率理解植被的影响.集成分析结果表明,未来美国干旱很可能增加,其中大平原中部所有季节都很显著,而东南和西南地区夏秋更为显著.植被对干旱趋势的影响和气候区有关.在温暖和潮湿/干燥气候区,林地(草地)未来干旱强度和频率的增幅大于对应的农田(荒漠)区域,因此植被可以放大未来干旱的风险.相反,在寒冷和潮湿气候区,林地(草地)区域未来干旱强度和频率增幅较小,表明植被放大未来干旱的作用可能只在某些气候情形下出现.这种植被对未来干旱影响的复杂性和对气候区的依赖性对气候模式提供可靠的干旱模拟和预测及森林管理部门制定适应和减缓气候变化的策略提出了新的挑战.     

Dynamics of severe atmospheric droughts in European Russia

Severe atmospheric droughts of different intensity over the southern Russian Plain are studied using the observations and model data during the period of 1936–2100. Spatial distribution, frequency, and duration of droughts are considered. Dynamics of extreme droughts in the 20th century is derived from the meteorological station data. The tendency of drought occurrence in 1991–2000, 2041–2050, and 2091–2100 is obtained from the MGO (Main Geophysical Observatory) regional climate model (RCM). A catalog of severe atmospheric droughts of different intensity is made based on the observations for 1936–2000 and modeling results for 1991–2000. The comparison of the observational and model data has shown that the MGO RCM simulates well the frequency of severe atmospheric droughts.     

Characteristics of anomalous precipitation events over eastern China during the past five centuries

Characteristics of anomalous precipitation events during the past five centuries in North China (NC) and the middle-lower Yangtze River Valley (MLYRV) were investigated using the data network of dryness/wetness index (DWI) over eastern China. The high occurrence frequency of anomalous precipitation events mainly occurred at periods of high solar forcing, active volcanic eruption, and large anthropogenic forcing (the twentieth century). Coherence and dipole were the two dominant modes in spatial patterns of anomalous precipitation events. Coherent floods dominated the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, whereas coherent droughts occurred frequently in the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. The dipole patterns of anomalous precipitation events were the most frequent in the twentieth century. NC experienced more floods in the cold periods than warm periods. Both NC and the MLYRV experienced far fewer droughts and more floods in the warm eighteenth century when natural climate forcing dominated, and more droughts in the twentieth century when anthropogenic forcing dominated. Coherent drought was the only spatial pattern of precipitation significantly associated with explosive low-latitude volcanic eruptions. The increased coherent droughts and dipole patterns in the twentieth century support the findings of previous modeling studies that the tropospheric aerosols and human-induced land cover changes play important roles in the changes of summer rainfall over eastern China. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. This paper is a contribution to the AMIP-CMIP Diagnostic Sub-project on General Circulation Model Simulation of the East Asian Climate, coordinated by W.-C. Wang.     

中国夏季和冬季极端干旱年代际变化及成因分析

依据1961～2009年中国区域540个气象站的夏、冬季气温和降水数据,首先采用气候变化趋势转折判别模型（简称PLFIM）分析了中国区域8个分区夏、冬季气温和降水的年代际变化,而后利用PDSI干旱指数研究了夏、冬季极端干旱在年代际尺度上的时空变化特征及其成因。结果表明:1961～2009年中国夏季极端干旱发生率北方大于南方,冬季则为在东部多而在西部少。夏季和冬季极端干旱发生概率在最后一次年代际转折后都呈增加趋势。在区域尺度上,夏季东北、华北和西北地区增加明显,冬季东北、华北、华南、西南地区增加显著。其中,降水在20世纪90年代以前的极端干旱变化中起主导作用,而后由于气候变暖所引起的极端干旱增加趋势逐渐增大,与降水变化的作用相互叠加。     

Spatiotemporal characteristics of regional drought occurrence in East Asia

Droughts in the East Asian region (105–150°E, 20–50°N) are quantified using the effective drought index (EDI) over a period of 43 years, from 1962 to 2004, and the East Asian region was classified into six subregions on the basis of similarity in drought climate: (D1) South China; (D2) lower region of the Yangtze River, South Korea, and Central/South Japan; (D3) Central China and North Korea; (D4) Northwest China and middle region of the Yangtze River; (D5) North China; and (D6) Northeast China and North Japan. The EDI time series was then summarized for the different drought subregions and a drought map was created that shows the spatiotemporal characteristics of regional drought occurrence in East Asia. The map shows that in subregions, D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, and D6, there were 50 (11.63 per decade), 36 (8.37 per decade), 30 (6.98 per decade), 28 (6.51 per decade), 29 (6.74 per decade), and 33 (7.67 per decade) drought occurrences, respectively. The most common characteristic of droughts in the subregions is that short-term droughts (<200 days) which mainly occur in spring and summer, whereas long-term droughts (≥200 days) mainly occur in autumn and winter. D1 shows the highest frequency of short-term droughts. Short-term droughts occur more frequently than long-term droughts in D2 and D3, but D4 and D6 showed a higher frequency of long-term droughts than short-term droughts. D5 showed a similar frequency of short- and long-term droughts. Drought onset dates are evenly distributed throughout the year for D1, D2, and D3, but distributed mostly in spring and summer in D4, D5, and D6. All the differences are linked to variations in the precipitation cycle of each subregion. In terms of annual variations in drought occurrence, D2 showed weakening droughts (the annual lowest EDI shows a positive trend), whereas the other subregions showed intensifying droughts (the annual lowest EDI shows a negative trend). The greatest intensifying trend was observed in D5, followed by D3, D6, D4, and D1.     

What spatial scales are believable for climate model projections of sea surface temperature?

Earth system models (ESMs) provide high resolution simulations of variables such as sea surface temperature (SST) that are often used in off-line biological impact models. Coral reef modellers have used such model outputs extensively to project both regional and global changes to coral growth and bleaching frequency. We assess model skill at capturing sub-regional climatologies and patterns of historical warming. This study uses an established wavelet-based spatial comparison technique to assess the skill of the coupled model intercomparison project phase 5 models to capture spatial SST patterns in coral regions. We show that models typically have medium to high skill at capturing climatological spatial patterns of SSTs within key coral regions, with model skill typically improving at larger spatial scales (≥4°). However models have much lower skill at modelling historical warming patters and are shown to often perform no better than chance at regional scales (e.g. Southeast Asian) and worse than chance at finer scales (<8°). Our findings suggest that output from current generation ESMs is not yet suitable for making sub-regional projections of change in coral bleaching frequency and other marine processes linked to SST warming.     

福建省干旱概况及夏旱期间人工增雨条件分析

对福建省干旱的成因和干旱的环流形势进行了探讨,着重分析了夏旱期间人工增雨作业的天气形势、云状、回波特征及云顶温度等条件,结果表明福建省干旱的形成与大型环流形势、地形、地貌及土壤植被条件有关;平均而言,闽东南沿海干旱多于内陆地区;西太平洋副热带高压是夏季致旱的主要天气系统;夏季,西风槽前型、台风外围影响型、副热带辐合带型是进行人工增雨作业的有利天气形势,Sc、Cb、Cu云都有一定的人工增雨作业条件,其中降水时长1～5 h,过程雨量1.0～5.0 mm的云是旱季作业比较适合的作业云.这些结果为开展人工增雨作业提供理论依据,达到解除或缓解干旱的目的.     

Warm and cold dry months and associated circulation in the humid and semi-humid Argentine region

This paper studies the climatic conditions of warm and cold dry months in the humid and semi-humid Argentine region and some aspects of the regional circulation related to these cases. The climatic analysis of warm (temperatures above percentile 80) and cold (temperatures below percentile 20) dry months is based on precipitation and temperature data registered at reference stations over a period of at least 70 years, while the associated circulation is derived from daily data of geopotential height at 500 hPa from NCEP-DOE Reanalysis 2 database. The reference station for the center of the country registered a greater number of warm dry months during both the warm season (October–March) and the cold season (April–September), whereas the reference stations in the north-east and center-east showed differences depending on the time of the year, with more cold dry months during the April–September season and more warm dry months in the October–March season. A classification of daily fields of geopotential height anomalies at 500 hPa was used to analyze the atmospheric circulation related to warm and cold dry months. The circulation patterns were obtained by applying principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Findings show that some mid-level circulation patterns occur with a significant different frequency during the warm dry months or the cold dry months studied. Finally, cases of spatially extended precipitation-deficit conditions (hereinafter generalized droughts) were studied, noting dominant patterns that are coherent with the previous results.     

Ranking Regional Drought Events in China for 1960--2009

The spatiotemporal variations of the site and regional droughts in China during 1960–2009 were analyzed by applying a daily composite-drought index (CDI) to 722 stations in mainland China. Droughts frequently happened in a zone extended from Southwest China to the Yellow River, North China, and the southwestern part of Northeast China, with two centers of high frequency in North China and Southwest China. In Southwest and South China, droughts tend to happen during the winter. In North China and along the Yellow River, droughts mainly occur during the winter and during May–June. During the past 50 years, the geographical distribution of site drought events showed high frequencies (0.9–1.3 times per year) in the upper Yellow River basin and North China, comparing with moderate frequencies (0.6–0.9 times per year) in Southwest China and the southwestern part of Northeast China and with lower frequencies over the middle and lower Yangtze River basin. And the frequencies increased over mainland China except for the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. A regional drought (RD) event is a widespread and persistent event that covers at least five adjacent sites and lasts for at least 10 days. There were 252 RD events in the past 50 years—five times per year. Most RD events lasted for <100 days and covered <100 stations, but the longest and largest RD event lasted for 307 days from 6 September 1998 to 9 July 1999 and covered 327 stations from North to Southwest China.     

季风梅雨带水汽输送与动力强迫源结构

对长江流域季风梅雨水汽输送特征、长江流域夏季旱涝过程与强信号强迫源(青藏高原与低纬海洋)遥相关动力结构以及季风梅雨过程水汽输送源汇结构等有关研究成果及观点进行综述，给出季风梅雨水汽输送流型与强迫源遥相关物理图像，即由青藏高原动力强迫效应形成的低纬海洋-高原-长江流域远距离水汽输送流型，以及海洋强信号区(南海、西太平洋暖池、赤道东太平洋等区域)热力异常构成长江流域梅雨期洪涝、暴雨等灾害性气候异常特征。研究结果揭示了长江流域洪涝及其暴雨形成过程二维Rossby波列或低频波传播能量的动力机制。     

华南秋旱的大气环流异常特征

利用实测降水量资料及NCEP再分析资料, 通过统计方法分析了华南秋旱及其相关的环流异常特征。结果发现, 华南秋旱以全区性的干旱出现居多。华南秋旱事件对应的同期海温异常分布型大致可分两类。一类是热带中东太平洋的负海表温度距平 (SSTA) 区的极值中心位于赤道东太平洋, 在海洋性大陆和热带西太平洋有马蹄形的正SSTA, 而在热带西印度洋, 南海至日本东、 南部西北太平洋是负SSTA; 另一类是热带中东太平洋正SSTA极值中心位于赤道中太平洋, 热带—副热带西太平洋、 南海和热带印度洋为负SSTA区, 副热带北太平洋东部和南太平洋东部为显著的正SSTA。 与第一类SSTA相关的华南秋旱与海洋性大陆区域上空的上升运动异常增强 (与其下垫面海温异常偏暖有关)。而与第二类SSTA相关的华南秋旱则与中纬度环流的长波调整造成的东北亚上空的异常上升运动距平有关。而两类华南秋旱都是通过大气环流对华南地区的异常下沉运动产生强迫作用而产生的。另外, 华南秋旱还与菲律宾和台湾东侧洋面上空出现上升运动距平有关。两类华南秋旱都与南海中北部热带气旋频数偏少, 菲律宾和台湾东侧热带气旋频数偏多有关, 因此, 使得登陆华南的热带气旋偏少, 导致华南秋季干旱。     

Comparison of the dryness/wetness index in China with the Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas

It is not clear how the frequency and amplitude of droughts have varied over the past 500 years in China, as the instrumental record is too short to identify centennial-scale trends. While the Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas (MADA) provides some insights into past drought patterns, its accuracy in eastern China remains uncertain. A comparison of the MADA and Chinese historical documents indicates that the MADA alone cannot effectively represent dryness and wetness in eastern China, so it is not appropriate to use the MADA in this region.     

Global trends and patterns of drought from space

This paper analyzes changes in areas under droughts over the past three decades and alters our understanding of how amplitude and frequency of droughts differ in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) and Northern Hemisphere (NH). Unlike most previous global-scale studies that have been based on climate models, this study is based on satellite gauge-adjusted precipitation observations. Here, we show that droughts in terms of both amplitude and frequency are more variable over land in the SH than in the NH. The results reveal no significant trend in the areas under drought over land in the past three decades. However, after investigating land in the NH and the SH separately, the results exhibit a significant positive trend in the area under drought over land in the SH, while no significant trend is observed over land in the NH. We investigate the spatial patterns of the wetness and dryness over the past three decades, and we show that several regions, such as the southwestern United States, Texas, parts of the Amazon, the Horn of Africa, northern India, and parts of the Mediterranean region, exhibit a significant drying trend. The global trend maps indicate that central Africa, parts of southwest Asia (e.g., Thailand, Taiwan), Central America, northern Australia, and parts of eastern Europe show a wetting trend during the same time span. The results of this satellite-based study disagree with several model-based studies which indicate that droughts have been increasing over land. On the other hand, our findings concur with some of the observation-based studies.