Conditional attribution of climate change and atmospheric circulation contributing to the record-breaking precipitation and temperature event of summer 2020 in southern China

Quantification of the contribution of atmospheric circulation to damaging extreme weather and climate events and the attribution of extreme events in the context of climate change has been gaining worldwide interest. Attribution analysis helps us to better understand the risks associated with the ef...

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Main Authors: Yangbo Ye, Cheng Qian
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2021-01-01
Series:Environmental Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abeeaf
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author Yangbo Ye
Cheng Qian
author_facet Yangbo Ye
Cheng Qian
author_sort Yangbo Ye
collection DOAJ
description Quantification of the contribution of atmospheric circulation to damaging extreme weather and climate events and the attribution of extreme events in the context of climate change has been gaining worldwide interest. Attribution analysis helps us to better understand the risks associated with the effects of climate change on extreme events. However, the contribution of atmospheric circulation, as well as the influence of climate change, to the record-breaking precipitation event in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the concurrent record-breaking hot event in South China during the Meiyu period (June–July) in 2020 are still unclear. In this study, we use flow analogues to estimate how much the atmospheric circulation can explain these two extreme events and the influence of climate change. The results show that the atmospheric circulation explains 70.73% and 43.61% of the extreme precipitation event and the concurrent hot event, respectively. Compared with past climate, the occurrence risk of an event reaching or exceeding the 2020 Meiyu amount under similar atmospheric circulation conditions increased by 5.1 times under the present climate, 80% of which can be attributed to climate change. In addition, hot events similar to the 2020 event cannot occur under past climate, while those reaching or exceeding a one standard deviation threshold increased from 0.58% under past climate conditions to 68.83% under the present climate, 99% of which can be attributed to climate change. These results are beneficial for the understanding and prediction of extreme events in the context of climate change in this region.
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spelling doaj.art-98aa646c913d464caf4a5da342f0b7dd2023-08-09T14:57:50ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262021-01-0116404405810.1088/1748-9326/abeeafConditional attribution of climate change and atmospheric circulation contributing to the record-breaking precipitation and temperature event of summer 2020 in southern ChinaYangbo Ye0Cheng Qian1Key Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment for Temperate East Asia, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing, People’s Republic of China; University of Chinese Academy of Science , Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaKey Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment for Temperate East Asia, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing, People’s Republic of China; University of Chinese Academy of Science , Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaQuantification of the contribution of atmospheric circulation to damaging extreme weather and climate events and the attribution of extreme events in the context of climate change has been gaining worldwide interest. Attribution analysis helps us to better understand the risks associated with the effects of climate change on extreme events. However, the contribution of atmospheric circulation, as well as the influence of climate change, to the record-breaking precipitation event in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the concurrent record-breaking hot event in South China during the Meiyu period (June–July) in 2020 are still unclear. In this study, we use flow analogues to estimate how much the atmospheric circulation can explain these two extreme events and the influence of climate change. The results show that the atmospheric circulation explains 70.73% and 43.61% of the extreme precipitation event and the concurrent hot event, respectively. Compared with past climate, the occurrence risk of an event reaching or exceeding the 2020 Meiyu amount under similar atmospheric circulation conditions increased by 5.1 times under the present climate, 80% of which can be attributed to climate change. In addition, hot events similar to the 2020 event cannot occur under past climate, while those reaching or exceeding a one standard deviation threshold increased from 0.58% under past climate conditions to 68.83% under the present climate, 99% of which can be attributed to climate change. These results are beneficial for the understanding and prediction of extreme events in the context of climate change in this region.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abeeafevent attributionsuper Meiyuflow analoguescompound eventextreme precipitation eventextreme temperature event
spellingShingle Yangbo Ye
Cheng Qian
Conditional attribution of climate change and atmospheric circulation contributing to the record-breaking precipitation and temperature event of summer 2020 in southern China
Environmental Research Letters
event attribution
super Meiyu
flow analogues
compound event
extreme precipitation event
extreme temperature event
title Conditional attribution of climate change and atmospheric circulation contributing to the record-breaking precipitation and temperature event of summer 2020 in southern China
title_full Conditional attribution of climate change and atmospheric circulation contributing to the record-breaking precipitation and temperature event of summer 2020 in southern China
title_fullStr Conditional attribution of climate change and atmospheric circulation contributing to the record-breaking precipitation and temperature event of summer 2020 in southern China
title_full_unstemmed Conditional attribution of climate change and atmospheric circulation contributing to the record-breaking precipitation and temperature event of summer 2020 in southern China
title_short Conditional attribution of climate change and atmospheric circulation contributing to the record-breaking precipitation and temperature event of summer 2020 in southern China
title_sort conditional attribution of climate change and atmospheric circulation contributing to the record breaking precipitation and temperature event of summer 2020 in southern china
topic event attribution
super Meiyu
flow analogues
compound event
extreme precipitation event
extreme temperature event
url https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abeeaf
work_keys_str_mv AT yangboye conditionalattributionofclimatechangeandatmosphericcirculationcontributingtotherecordbreakingprecipitationandtemperatureeventofsummer2020insouthernchina
AT chengqian conditionalattributionofclimatechangeandatmosphericcirculationcontributingtotherecordbreakingprecipitationandtemperatureeventofsummer2020insouthernchina