Characteristics and main influence factors of heat waves in Beijing–Tianjin–Shijiazhuang cities of northern China in recent 50 years

Abstract

Heat wave is serious natural disaster that can harm human health and affect social economy, transportation and ecological environment. This paper investigates the long term trends of high temperature events in three major cities (Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang) of northern China during 1970-2019, and quantifies the contributions of main influencing factors to the variability of high temperature days. High temperature events in Beijing-Tianjin-Shijiazhuang cities mainly occur from June to July and account for 60-65% of the annual total, showing a significant upward trend in the interannual change. There is a trend of high temperature events starting early and ending late in recent 50 years, and this trend is intensified by the increasing urbanization. Due to geographical location and city scale, the frequency and intensity of high temperature events show difference among Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang cities. Variance analysis shows that climate warming contributes 20.2-25.5% to the variability of high temperature days, while urban heat island accounts for 14.7-24.2%, equal to the sum of the contributions from atmospheric circulation and solar activity.

Projecting the Changes in Multifaceted Characteristics of Heatwave Events Across China

“…In the past century, China has experienced a clear warming trend. Overlying the warming trend, more frequent heatwaves affect crops, vegetations, and water consumption, leading to detrimental impacts on food security and water resource sustainability in China (Kang & Eltahir, 2018; Luo et al., 2019; Wei et al., 2020; Zheng et al., 2020). Meanwhile, with the rapid development of urbanization and increasing population aging, the high‐temperature vulnerability in China experienced an explosive increase (Wang et al., 2019).…”

Characteristics of summer hourly precipitation under different urbanization background in central China

“…In the urbanization process, the population continues to gather to the city, and the city scale continues to expand. Therefore, the rapid urbanization is usually accompanied by the rapid growths of population and urban built-up area, which are generally taken as indicators to reflect the urbanization process 25 , 26 . Figure 2 a presents the interannual variations of the population and urban built-up area in WH, JZ, XN and LC cities during 2007–2019.…”

“…Therefore, WH has the fastest urbanization process, followed by JZ, XN and LC, and JS, as an ABMS, has none urbanization. As urban meteorological events are influenced by human activity, climate change and other factors 20 , 26 , and this study mainly focuses on the impact of urbanization, so WH, XN and JS are used to investigate the characteristics of summer hourly precipitation under different urbanization background. This is because JS is an ABMS, which monitors the atmospheric natural change under none urbanization in central China, while WH and XN have significantly different urbanization levels, especially WH and XN are close to JS, which may reduce the impact of regional climate differences.…”

Unusually weak signal of summer surface air temperature change over North China

“…North China (NC, 30°‐42° N, 110–120° E), located in the northern mid‐latitudes, is one of the fastest‐growing and most densely populated areas in the world. In recent decades, North China has suffered more intense extreme events more frequently, which seriously affects residents' health and economic development in this region (An & Zuo, 2021; Bu et al, 2023; Kang & Eltahir, 2018; Wang et al, 2017; Wang et al, 2019; Wu et al, 2020; Wu et al, 2021; Xing et al, 2020; Zheng et al, 2020). As one of the main factors determining climate conditions, investigating the characteristics of SAT change in NC is vital to regional risk assessment and adaptation planning.…”