Interannual Variability in August Drought in Northern China and the Corresponding Climate Shift

Abstract

Recent extreme weather and climate events, such as droughts, floods, and heat waves, have caused significant impacts on ecosystems and human well-being (Field et al., 2014). Drought is a major natural disaster that causes tremendous losses to both economic and agricultural development worldwide (Field et al., 2014). From 1998 to 2017, droughts influenced approximately 1.5 billion people, accounting for one-third of all-natural disaster impacts (Funk et al., 2019). China has suffered from water shortage issues in the past, especially in northern China (Chen & Sun, 2015;Jiang, 2009), which has a dense population and is a major agricultural and industrial sector. In addition, drought disasters in northern China exert serious impacts on the economy, environment, and local water crisis (Ma & Fu, 2006). For example, a severe drought occurred in northern China in 2017 that led to large areas of crop damage. In 2014, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which is located in northwestern China, frequently experienced severe weather and climate events, and drought disasters accounted for the largest proportion (approximately 38%) of all-natural disasters, causing direct economic losses of nearly 2.9 billion yuan. It is of great significance to investigate the variations in drought in northern China and the underlying mechanisms, which may help with drought prediction and disaster reduction.According to climatic and hydrological records, the climate in northwestern China changed from warm-dry to warm-wet around the late 1980s (Chen et al., 2012;Shi et al., 2003). It has been claimed that both temperature and precipitation have displayed positive tendencies in recent decades, and warmer and wetter conditions have been observed in northwestern China (

Analysis of the Variability Characteristics and Applicability of SPEI in Mainland China from 1985 to 2018

“…In terms of atmospheric circulation changes, the main reason for the occurrence of meteorological droughts in the NC region was the influence of ENSO events. In terms of global changes, drought was mainly affected by rapid urbanization and global warming [59]. The SC region is a tropical-south subtropical monsoon climate with high temperature and rainfall that borders on tropical oceans.…”