The little ice age of the northwest region, China

Abstract

The Little Ice Age began in the early 15 the century and ended in 16 the century in the northwest region of China. In the Northern Hemisphere, the age of the Little Ice Age postponed form north to south, form west to east, and moist region to drought. Judged by the data the Little Ice Age of the Northwest China is later than the eastern China and Europe. The climate of the Little Ice Age in northwest China was cold-wet. In northwest China, as compared with the Little Ice Age, the recently annual temperature have raised about 1–1.3°C, the precipitation have reduced 50–78 mm, the evaporation have increased 7%, the glacier area have reduced about 21–46%, and the runoff have reduced about 14% in the river which the meltwater supply proportion is less than 10%. To sum up, since the Little Ice Age the warm-dry tendency of climatic variation is quite obviously in northwest China. If it goes on like this, its influence will be more severe to the river which meltwater proportion is more than 50%.