Change in the heatwave statistical characteristics over China during the climate warming slowdown

Abstract Heatwaves are multi-day periods of extremely high-temperature weather relative to a region's average conditions and are among the deadliest natural disasters. This study was designed to evaluate changes in the characteristics of heatwaves during the periods of warming acceleration versus warming slowdown using the multivariate joint probability distributions of heatwave duration and severity. The results revealed that: (1) From the warming acceleration period (1961–1997) to the warming slowdown period (1998–2017), the return levels of heatwave duration increased by