Open AccessAn interdecadal shift in the number of hot nights around 1997 over Eastern China
Author(s) -
Chen Sisi,
Zhang Jingyong,
Huang Gang
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
atmospheric science letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 45
ISSN - 1530-261X
DOI - 10.1002/asl.684
Subject(s) - climatology , environmental science , china , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , geography , geology , archaeology
In this study, we investigate the interdecadal variation in summer nighttime hot extremes over eastern China using observational daily minimum temperature during 1979–2013. Results show a statistically significant shift in the number of hot nights (NHN) around 1997 with averaged NHN over eastern China of 6 days more during 1997–2013 than 1979–1996. The time series of the first leading Empirical Orthogonal Function mode of the NHN is closely related with sea surface temperature anomalies over the tropical western pacific warm pool, Pacific Decadal Oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, which all experienced substantial interdecadal changes in the late 1990s. Other factors such as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects may also contribute to the interdecadal change of the NHN around 1997.