Influence of inhomogeneity on the estimation of mean and extreme temperature trends in Beijing and Shanghai

Abstract

Inhomogeneities in the temperature series from Beijing and Shanghai are analyzed, using the detailed histories of both sets of observations. The major corrections for different periods range from −0.33 to 0.6°C for Beijing and −0.33 to 0.3°C for Shanghai, Annual mean and extreme temperature series are deduced from the daily observations and trends in the adjusted and unadjusted series are compared. The adjusted yearly mean temperatures show a warming trend of 0.5°C/ century since the turn of this century and an enhanced one of 2.0°C/ century since the 1960s. In contrast, the unadjusted data show a twice this value trend for Shanghai but little trend for Beijing at the long-term scale and overestimate the recent warming by 50%–130%. Beijing experienced a decrease of frequency of the extremes together with a cooling during the 1940s–1970s and an increase of frequency of extremes together with a warming since then. The trends of frequency of extremes at Shanghai were more or less opposite. It is implied that the regional trends of strong weather variations may be different even when the regional mean temperatures coherently change.