TITLE:
Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of Winter Cold Events in China from 1960 to 2020
AUTHORS:
Haifeng Chen, Xiaojuan Sun, Shu Zhou, Junjun Wang, Lin Zhou
KEYWORDS:
Cold Events, Spatio-Temporal Characteristics, Winter, China
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.10 No.5,
May
27,
2022
ABSTRACT: Under the background of global warming, extreme cold events occur
frequently. It is important to enhance the understanding of cold air patterns
for forecasting cold air and reducing cold air-induced meteorological disasters.
The study used the daily minimum temperatures from the National Climate Centre
to classify the cold events affecting China into five different grades and the
characteristics of different intensity cold events in China during the winter
from 1960 to 2020 were analyzed. The
results showed that there is little difference in the distribution of the
frequency of general cold events from north to south, with duration longer in
the north than in the south and an increase in frequency in the north in the
last 60 years. The frequency
of strong cold events is more in the north of China than in the south of China,
and the duration is longer in the south than in the north China, with the
frequency decreasing in most parts of the country. In addition to latitude,
cold events frequency is closely linked to topography, with basins surrounded
by high mountains being difficult to be affected by cold events, especially
extreme cold events. In terms of month distribution, December was subject to the highest frequency of cold
events and the longest duration of a single cold events process.