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Changes in precipitation and extreme precipitation in a warming environment in China
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  • Article
  • Open Access
  • Published: 06 December 2012

Changes in precipitation and extreme precipitation in a warming environment in China

  • JianQi Sun1,2 &
  • Juan Ao1,2,3 

Chinese Science Bulletin volume 58, pages 1395–1401 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

This study analyses the decadal changes in winter precipitation and extreme precipitation in a warming environment in China. The results show that, together with a trend of winter warming in China, winter precipitation and extreme precipitation in the region are also increasing. In addition, concurrent with the decadal warming shift that occurred in the mid-1980s, precipitation and extreme precipitation both increased significantly. Quantitative analysis shows that precipitation and extreme precipitation increased at rates of 9.7% and 22.6% per 1°C of surface warming in China. This rate of precipitation increase is greater than the global mean, which indicates that precipitation in China is highly sensitive to climate warming and further highlights the importance of studying regional responses to climate warming. The fact that extreme precipitation is increasing at a higher rate than precipitation implies that winter precipitation in China will increasingly be of more extreme type in the context of global warming, which could partly explain why there have recently been a number of record-breaking extreme snowfall events in China.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nansen-Zhu International Research Centre, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    JianQi Sun & Juan Ao

  2. Climate Change Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    JianQi Sun & Juan Ao

  3. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Juan Ao

Authors
  1. JianQi Sun
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  2. Juan Ao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to JianQi Sun.

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This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

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Cite this article

Sun, J., Ao, J. Changes in precipitation and extreme precipitation in a warming environment in China. Chin. Sci. Bull. 58, 1395–1401 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-012-5542-z

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  • Received: 28 August 2012

  • Accepted: 09 October 2012

  • Published: 06 December 2012

  • Issue Date: April 2013

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-012-5542-z

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Keywords

  • winter precipitation
  • extreme precipitation
  • global warming
  • sensitivity
  • regional response
  • climate change
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