Crop Diversification in Coping with Extreme Weather Events in China

Apart from the long-term effects of climate change, the frequency and severity of extreme weather events have been increasing. Given the risks posed by climate change, particularly the changes in extreme weather events, the question of how to adapt to these changes and mitigate their negative impacts has received great attention from policy makers. The overall goals of this study are to examine whether farmers adapt to extreme weather events through crop diversification and which factors influence farmers＇ decisions on crop diversification against extreme weather events in China. To limit the scope of this study, we focus on drought and flood events only. Based on a unique large-scale household survey in nine provinces, this study finds that farmers respond to extreme weather events by increasing crop diversification. Their decision to diversify crops is significantly influenced by their experiences of extreme weather events in the previous year. Such results are understandable because farmers＇ behaviors are normally based on their expectations. Moreover, household characteristics also affect farmers＇ decisions on crop diversification strategy, and their effects differ by farmers＇ age and gender. This paper concludes with several policy implications.

Urbanization Impact on Regional Climate and Extreme Weather:Current Understanding,Uncertainties,and Future Research Directions

Urban environments lie at the confluence of social,cultural,and economic activities and have unique biophysical characteristics due to continued infrastructure development that generally replaces natural landscapes with built-up structures.The vast majority of studies on urban perturbation of local weather and climate have been centered on the urban heat island(UHI)effect,referring to the higher temperature in cities compared to their natural surroundings.Besides the UHI effect and heat waves,urbanization also impacts atmospheric moisture,wind,boundary layer structure,cloud formation,dispersion of air pollutants,precipitation,and storms.In this review article,we first introduce the datasets and methods used in studying urban areas and their impacts through both observation and modeling and then summarize the scientific insights on the impact of urbanization on various aspects of regional climate and extreme weather based on more than 500 studies.We also highlight the major research gaps and challenges in our understanding of the impacts of urbanization and provide our perspective and recommendations for future research priorities and directions.

What determines irrigation efficiency when farmers face extreme weather events? A field survey of the major wheat producing regions in China

Water availability is a major constraint on grain production in China, therefore, improving irrigation efficiency is particularly important when agriculture faces extreme weather events. This paper first calculates irrigation efficiency with a translog stochastic frontier production function and then investigates what happens when extreme weather events occur via a Tobit model. The estimated results reveal several important features of irrigation practices: i) irrigation efficiency is lower when extreme weather events occur; ii) large variations in irrigation efficiency occur across irrigation facilities; iii) the farm plots exhibit an extreme distribution across efficiency levels; and iv) water-saving techniques, technology adoption, and the maintenance of farmers’ economic resilience are major determinants of irrigation efficiency. Based on these results we propose the following recommendations: i) farmers should balance crop yield and water use; undertake relevant training programs and adopt water-saving techniques; ii) local governments and researchers should help farmers to find the optimal level of irrigation water use based on their own circumstances and provide better water-saving techniques and training programs rather than simply encouraging farmers to invest in irrigation facilities in the most extreme weather years; and iii) the income level of farm households should be increased so as to improve their resilience to natural disasters.

Sustainable city development challenged by extreme weather in a warming world

The year of 2021 has witnessed many extreme weather events across the world that have shocked and challenged human society,in particular for the populous cities,challenging progress on sustainable city development.In the comment we highlighted the record-breaking rainstorm that is considered to happen only“once-in-a-thousand-years”on 20 July 2021 in Zhengzhou,China;and a series of short and long-term resilience enhancement and risk reducing measures to climate change and natural hazard risks.We found that increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events caused by human-induced climate change challenges progress on sustainable city development,but could also accelerate activities to enable cities to become more resilient.This comment is essential to advance towards the sustainable city development goal(SDG 11)in China’s mega cities,as well as informing progress for other global cities.

Numerical Simulation and Analysis of Storm Surges Under Different Extreme Weather Event and Typhoon Experiments in the South Yellow Sea

In this study,a coupled tide-surge-wave model was developed and applied to the South Yellow Sea.The coupled model simulated the evolution of storm surges and waves caused by extreme weather events,such as tropical cyclones,cold waves,extratropical cyclones coupled with a cold wave,and tropical cyclones coupled with a cold wave.The modeled surge level and significant wave height matched the measured data well.Simulation results of the typhoon with different intensities revealed that the radius to the maximum wind speed of a typhoon with 1.5 times wind speed decreased,and its influence range was farther away from the Jiangsu coastal region;moreover,the impact on surge levels was weakened.Thereafter,eight hypothetical typhoons based on Typhoon Chan-hom were designed to investigate the effects of varying typhoon tracks on the extreme value and spatial distribution of storm surges in the offshore area of Jiangsu Province.The typhoon along path 2 mainly affected the Rudong coast,and the topography of the Rudong coast was conducive to the increase in surge level.Therefore,the typhoon along path 2 induced the largest surge level,which reached up to 2.91 m in the radial sand ridge area.The maximum surge levels in the Haizhou Bay area and the middle straight coastline area reached up to 2.37 and 2.08 m,respectively.In terms of typhoons active in offshore areas,the radial sand ridge area was most likely to be threatened by typhoon-induced storm surges.

2023: Weather and Climate Extremes Hitting the Globe with Emerging Features

Globally,2023 was the warmest observed year on record since at least 1850 and,according to proxy evidence,possibly of the past 100000 years.As in recent years,the record warmth has again been accompanied with yet more extreme weather and climate events throughout the world.Here,we provide an overview of those of 2023,with details and key background causes to help build upon our understanding of the roles of internal climate variability and anthropogenic climate change.We also highlight emerging features associated with some of these extreme events.Hot extremes are occurring earlier in the year,and increasingly simultaneously in differing parts of the world(e.g.,the concurrent hot extremes in the Northern Hemisphere in July 2023).Intense cyclones are exacerbating precipitation extremes(e.g.,the North China flooding in July and the Libya flooding in September).Droughts in some regions(e.g.,California and the Horn of Africa)have transitioned into flood conditions.Climate extremes also show increasing interactions with ecosystems via wildfires(e.g.,those in Hawaii in August and in Canada from spring to autumn 2023)and sandstorms(e.g.,those in Mongolia in April 2023).Finally,we also consider the challenges to research that these emerging characteristics present for the strategy and practice of adaptation.

Resilience Building and Collaborative Governance for Climate Change Adaptation in Response to a New State of More Frequent and Intense Extreme Weather Events

The weather conditions of the summer of 2022 were very unusual,particularly in Eastern Asia,Europe,and North America.The devasting impact of climate change has come to our attention,with much hotter and drier conditions,and with more frequent and intense flooding events.Some extreme events have reached a dangerous level,increasingly threatening human lives.The interconnected risks caused by these extreme disaster events are triggering a chain effect,forcing us to respond to these crises through changes in our living environment,which affect the atmosphere,the biosphere,the economy including the availability of energy,our cities,and our global society.Moreover,we have to confront the abnormal consequences of untypical,rapid changes of extreme events and fast switches between extreme states,such as from severe drought to devastating flooding.Recognizing this new situation,it is crucial to improve the adaptation capacity of our societies in order to reduce the risks associated with climate change,and to develop smarter strategies for climate governance.High-quality development must be science-based,balanced,safe,sustainable,and climate-resilient,supported by the collaborative governance of climate mitigation and adaptation.This article provides some recommendations and suggestions for resilience building and collaborative governance with respect to climate adaptation in response to a new planetary state that is characterized by more frequent and severe extreme weather events.

Extreme weather as a window:Exploring the seek and supply of climate change information during meteorological disasters in China

Public engagement is essential for China to address climate change;however,few studies have explored how to encourage climate awareness among Chinese residents.The objective of this study is to explore the role of local extreme weather in advancing Chinese people's climate change awareness.Whether local extreme weather functions as an opportunity to trigger the public's interest in climate change across China and whether the local online information environment resonances with extreme weather by providing climate change news feeds have been examined by a combination of city-level meteorological warnings and search engine data.The results have verified that residents from 50 of the 360 cities show increasing concern for climate change when an extreme weather event occurs locally;however,only the online information environment of two cities echoes local extreme weather by providing more information about climate change or global warming.Correlations between extreme weather events such as heavy rain,an extreme weather event that has occurred in China,and climate change are underestimated.The effect of extreme cold events and snowfall on climate change awareness should also be noted more in China.This study suggests there is still a lot of room for improvement regarding both increasing and satisfying the public's pre-existing climate change-related concerns.A promising approach would be adopting climate change prevention and adaptation as a news report framework for extreme weather events.

Analysis of Extreme Precipitation Weather Process in Henan during July 17-22, 2021

To learn more about the unusually heavy rainfall in central China, this research uses the monthly climatic data, weather map information and US NCEP re-analysis data to analyze the atmospheric circulation, precipitation and weather situation of this extreme precipitation weather process in Henan during July 17-22, 2021. The results show that the precipitation process is affected by the joint action of the subtropical high, the continental high, the low vortex, the low-level jet, the typhoon “In-fa” and other multi-scale systems in the middle and low latitudes. This precipitation process was also affected by the topographic uplift and blocking of Taihang Mountain and Funiu Mountain.

Extreme Weather Loss and Damage Estimation Using a Hybrid Simulation Technique

History has shown that occurrences of extreme weather are becoming more frequent and with greater impact,regardless of one's geographical location.In a risk analysis setting,what will happen,how likely it is to happen,and what are the consequences,are motivating questions searching for answers.To help address these considerations,this study introduced and applied a hybrid simulation model developed for the purpose of improving understanding of the costs of extreme weather events in the form of loss and damage,based on empirical data in the contiguous United States.Model results are encouraging,showing on average a mean cost estimate within 5%of the historical cost.This creates opportunities to improve the accuracy in estimating the expected costs of such events for a specific event type and geographic location.In turn,by having a more credible price point in determining the cost-effectiveness of various infrastructure adaptation strategies,it can help in making the business case for resilience investment.

Extreme Measures for Extreme Weather

Effective disaster prevention and response have become top priorities for local governments across China For three days,a torrential downpour pounded Wangmo,a small mountainous county in southwest China’s Guizhou Province.The June 3-5

Extreme Weather Marks 2010

Most unusual weather of new century during last year Last year’s weather was the most unusual so far this century, according to

Detecting Climate Change in Using Extreme Data from Two Surface Weather Stations: Case Study Valle of Comitan and La Esperanza, Chiapas, Mexico

The study area is located between the cities of Comitan (16°10'43"N and 92°04'20''W) a city with 150,000 inhabitants and La Esperanza (16°9'15''N and 91°52'5''W) a town with 3000 inhabitants. Both weather stations are 30 km from each other in the Chiapas State, México. 54 years of daily records of the series of maximum (tmax) and minimum temperatures (tmin) of the weather station 07205 Comitan that is on top of a house and 30 years of daily records of the weather station 07374 La Esperanza were analyzed. The objective is to analyze the evidence of climate change in the Comitan valley. 2.07% and 19.04% of missing data were filled, respectively, with the WS method. In order to verify homogeneity three methods were used: Standard Normal Homogeneity Test (SNHT), the Von Neumann method and the Buishand method. The heterogeneous series were homogenized using climatol. The trends of tmax and tmin for both weather stations were analyzed by simple linear regression, Sperman’s rho and Mann-Kendall tests. The Mann-Kendal test method confirmed the warming trend at the Comitan station for both variables with ZMK statistic values equal to 1.57 (statistically not significant) and 4.64 (statistically significant). However, for the Esperanza station, it determined a cooling trend for tmin and a slight non-significant warming for tmax with a ZMK statistic of -2.27 (statistically significant) and 1.16 (statistically not significant), for a significance level α = 0.05.

Eternal Climate Change Patterns and the Causes and Countermeasures of Global Climate Change

It is an objective fact that the weather is unpredictable.Even the famous meteorologist,Academician Chu Ko Chen,has only a partial understanding of the changing laws of wind and rain.Even though ancient people summarized the 24 solar terms by observing the annual activities of the sun for a long time,because they ignored the impact of the activities of the moon on the Earth’s climate change on a small scale,the 24 solar terms they summarized often could not accurately predict the change of the Earth’s climate.Therefore,the author studied the influence of lunar activities on the Earth’s climate change,finds out the law of the influence of lunar activities on the Earth’s climate change on a small scale,and summarizes the eternal climate change pattern determined by the activities of the sun and the moon.In addition,the author also reveals the causes and countermeasures of global warming and the frequent occurrence of extreme weather as well as environmental change.

The 2020 Summer Floods and 2020/21 Winter Extreme Cold Surges in China and the 2020 Typhoon Season in the Western North Pacific

China experienced significant flooding in the summer of 2020 and multiple extreme cold surges during the winter of 2020/21.Additionally,the 2020 typhoon season had below average activity with especially quiet activity during the first half of the season in the western North Pacific(WNP).Sea surface temperature changes in the Pacific,Indian,and Atlantic Oceans all contributed to the heavy rainfall in China,but the Atlantic and Indian Oceans seem to have played dominant roles.Enhancement and movement of the Siberian High caused a wavier pattern in the jet stream that allowed cold polar air to reach southward,inducing cold surges in China.Large vertical wind shear and low humidity in the WNP were responsible for fewer typhoons in the first half of the typhoon season.Although it is known that global warming can increase the frequency of extreme weather and climate events,its influences on individual events still need to be quantified.Additionally,the extreme cold surge during 16–18 February 2021 in the United States shares similar mechanisms with the winter 2020/21 extreme cold surges in China.

Extreme Cold Events from East Asia to North America in Winter 2020/21:Comparisons,Causes,and Future Implications

Three striking and impactful extreme cold weather events successively occurred across East Asia and North America during the mid-winter of 2020/21.These events open a new window to detect possible underlying physical processes.The analysis here indicates that the occurrences of the three events resulted from integrated effects of a concurrence of anomalous thermal conditions in three oceans and interactive Arctic-lower latitude atmospheric circulation processes,which were linked and influenced by one major sudden stratospheric warming(SSW).The North Atlantic warm blob initiated an increased poleward transient eddy heat flux,reducing the Barents-Kara seas sea ice over a warmed ocean and disrupting the stratospheric polar vortex(SPV)to induce the major SSW.The Rossby wave trains excited by the North Atlantic warm blob and the tropical Pacific La Nina interacted with the Arctic tropospheric circulation anomalies or the tropospheric polar vortex to provide dynamic settings,steering cold polar air outbreaks.The long memory of the retreated sea ice with the underlying warm ocean and the amplified tropospheric blocking highs from the midlatitudes to the Arctic intermittently fueled the increased transient eddy heat flux to sustain the SSW over a long time period.The displaced or split SPV centers associated with the SSW played crucial roles in substantially intensifying the tropospheric circulation anomalies and moving the jet stream to the far south to cause cold air outbreaks to a rarely observed extreme state.The results have significant implications for increasing prediction skill and improving policy decision making to enhance resilience in“One Health,One Future”.

Community-Based Coral Reef Rehabilitation in a Changing Climate:Lessons Learned from Hurricanes,Extreme Rainfall,and Changing Land Use Impacts

Coral reefs have largely declined across multiple spatial scales due to a combination of local-scale anthropogenic impacts, and due to regional-global climate change. This has resulted in a significant loss of entire coral functional groups, including western Atlantic Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) biotopes, and in a net decline of coral reef ecosystem resilience, ecological functions, services and benefits. Low-tech coral farming has become one of the most important tools to help restore depleted coral reefs across the Wider Caribbean Region. We tested a community-based, low-tech coral farming approach in Culebra Island, Puerto Rico, aimed at adapting to climate change-related impacts through a two-year project to propagate A. cervicornis under two contrasting fishing management conditions, in coastal areas experimenting significant land use changes. Extreme rainfall events and recurrent tropical storms and hurricanes had major site-and method-specific impacts on project outcome, particularly in areas adjacent to deforested lands and subjected to recurrent impacts from land-based source pollution (LBSP) and runoff. Overall, coral survival rate in “A frame” units improved from 73% during 2011-2012 to 81% during 2012-2013. Coral survival rate improved to 97% in horizontal line nurseries (HLN) incorporated during 2012-2013. Percent tissue cover ranged from 86% to 91% in “A frames”, but reached 98% in HLN. Mean coral skeletal extension was 27 cm/y in “A frames” and 40 cm/y in HLN. These growth rates were up to 545% to 857% faster than previous reports from coral farms from other parts of the Caribbean, and up to 438% faster than wild colonies. Branch production and branchiness index (no. harvestable branches > 6 cm) increased by several orders of magnitude in comparison to the original colonies at the beginning of the project. Coral mortality was associated to hurricane physical impacts and sediment-laden runoff impacts associated to extreme rainfall and deforestation of adjacent lands. This raises a challenging question regarding the impact of chronic high sea surface temperature (SST), in combination with recurrent high nutrient pulses, in fostering increased coral growth at the expense of coral physiological conditions which may compromise corals resistance to disturbance. Achieving successful local management of reefs and adjacent lands is vital to maintain the sustained net production in coral farms and of reef structure, and the provision of the important ecosystem services that they provide. These measures are vital for buying time for reefs while global action on climate change is implemented. Adaptive community-based strategies are critical to strengthen institutional management efforts. But government agencies need to transparently build local trust, empower local stakeholders, and foster co-management to be fully successful. Failing to achieve that could make community-based coral reef rehabilitation more challenging, and could potentially drive rapidly declining, transient coral reefs into the slippery slope to slime.

MULTIMODEL CONSENSUS FORECASTING OF LOW TEMPERATURE AND ICY WEATHER OVER CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN CHINA IN EARLY 2008

Based on the daily mean temperature and 24-h accumulated total precipitation over central and southern China, the features and the possible causes of the extreme weather events with low temperature and icing conditions,which occurred in the southern part of China during early 2008, are investigated in this study. In addition, multimodel consensus forecasting experiments are conducted by using the ensemble forecasts of ECMWF, JMA, NCEP and CMA taken from the TIGGE archives. Results show that more than a third of the stations in the southern part of China were covered by the extremely abundant precipitation with a 50-a return period, and extremely low temperature with a 50-a return period occurred in the Guizhou and western Hunan province as well. For the 24- to 216-h surface temperature forecasts, the bias-removed multimodel ensemble mean with running training period(R-BREM) has the highest forecast skill of all individual models and multimodel consensus techniques. Taking the RMSEs of the ECMWF 96-h forecasts as the criterion, the forecast time of the surface temperature may be prolonged to 192 h over the southeastern coast of China by using the R-BREM technique. For the sprinkle forecasts over central and southern China, the R-BREM technique has the best performance in terms of threat scores(TS) for the 24- to 192-h forecasts except for the 72-h forecasts among all individual models and multimodel consensus techniques. For the moderate rain, the forecast skill of the R-BREM technique is superior to those of individual models and multimodel ensemble mean.

The influence of extreme cold ambient temperature on out of hospital cardiac arrest: A systemic review and meta-analysis

Objective:Many researches have demonstrated the effects of the extreme cold ambient temperature on the risk of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest(OHCA);yet,the results have been inconsistent.We performed a meta-analysis to evaluate whether extreme cold ambient temperature is related to OHCA.Methods:We searched for time-series studies reporting associations between extreme cold ambient temperature and OHCA in PubMed,web of science and Cochrane database.Results:Six studies involving 2337403 cases of OHCA were qualified for our meta-analysis.The odds ratio(OR)of OHCA was significantly increased in extreme cold weather(defined as the 1st or 5th centile temperature year-round)compared to reference temperature(as the 25th centile temperatures or daily mean temperature with minimum risk of OHCA)(OR=1.49,95%CI 1.18-1.88).The subgroup analysis for the elderly and the female failed to detect the influence of extreme cold weather on OHCA,the ORs are 1.25(95%CI 0.89-1.75)and 1.19(95%CI 0.87-1.64),respectively.Conclusion:The risk of OHCA is significantly higher in extreme cold ambient temperatures than in reference temperature,according to a relative temperature scale with percentiles of the region-specific temperature distribution.

Overview of China Polar Climate Change Annual Report(2022)

The China Meteorological Administration recently released China Polar Climate Change Annual Report(2022)in Chinese,with the following main conclusions.Using the China Reanalysis-40 dataset(CRA-40),rapid warming has been observed in the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica since 1979,with some parts of East Antarctica also experiencing warming.In 2022,the regional average temperature in Antarctica based on observational data was close to the long-term average(1991-2020).The Arctic,on the other hand,has experienced a warming trend at a rate of 0.63℃per decade from 1979 to 2022 based on CRA-40,which is 3.7 times the global mean during the same period(0.17℃per decade).In 2022,the overall temperature in the Arctic,using station data,was 1.10℃above the long-term average(1991-2020).In recent years,both the Antarctic and Arctic regions have witnessed an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.In 2022,based on the sea ice extent from National Snow and Ice Data Center,USA,Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest extent on record since 1979,and on 18 March,the most rapid surface warming event ever recorded on Earth occurred in the Antarctic,with a temperature increase of 49℃within 3 d.This report has been integrated into China's National Climate Change Bulletin system,to contribute to raising public awareness of polar climate change and providing valuable scientific references to address climate change.