Changes of Temperature and Precipitation Extremes in Hengduan Mountains, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in 1961–2008

Key words: 
• precipitation /
• temperature /
• climate extremes /
• global warming /
• Hengduan Mountains, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Abstract: Variations and trends in extreme climate events are more sensitive to climate change than the mean values, and so have
received much attention. In this study, twelve indices of temperature extremes and 11 indices of precipitation extremes at 32
meteorological stations in Hengduan Mountains were examined for the period 1961–2008. The results reveal statistically significant
increases in the temperature of the warmest and coldest nights and in the frequencies of extreme warm days and nights. Decreases of
the diurnal temperature range and the numbers of frost days and ice days are statistically significant. Regional averages of growing
season length also display the trends consistent and significant with warming. At a large proportion of the stations, patterns of
temperature extremes are consistent with warming since 1961: warming trends in minimum temperature indices are greater than those
relating to maximum temperature. As the center of the Shaluli Mountain, the warming magnitudes decrease from inner to outer. Changes
in precipitation extremes is low: trends are difficult to detect against the larger inter-annual and decadal-scale variability of precipitation,
and only the wet day precipitation and the regional trend in consecutive dry days are significant at the 0.05 level. It can be concluded
that the variation of extreme precipitation events is not obvious in the Hengduan Mountains, however, the regional trends generally
decrease from the south to the north. Overall, the spatial distribution of temporal changes of all extreme climate indices in the Hengduan
Mountains illustrated here reflects the climatic complexity in mountainous regions.