| Abstract: | Using the southern limit of snowfall recorded in Chinese documents, chronologies of tree-ring width, and tree-ring stable oxygen isotope (\(\updelta^{18}\)O), the annual temperature anomaly in southern China during 1850-2009 is reconstructed using the method of signal decomposition and synthesis. The results show that the linear trend was 0.47C (100 yr)-1 over 1871-2009, and the two most rapid warming intervals occurred in 1877-1938 and 1968-2007, at rates of 0.125C (10 yr)-1 and 0.258C (10 yr)-1, respectively. The decadal variation shows that the temperature in the moderate warm interval of the 1910s-1930s was notably lower than that of the 1980s-2000s, which suggests that the warming since the 1980s was unprecedented for the past 160 years, though a warming hiatus existed in the 2000s. Additionally, there was a rapid cooling starting from the 1860s, followed by a cold interval until the early 1890s, with the coldest years in 1892 and 1893. A slight temperature decline was also found from the 1940s to the late 1960s. This study provides an independent case to validate the global warming for the past 160 years and its hiatus recently, because the proxy data are not affected by urbanization. |
