Overview of Climate Change in China

It is at the rate of 0.32 °C/decade that the annual average surface air temperature over China rose from 1961 to 2017. And the warming rate of the annual mean minimum temperature, 0.42 °C/decade, was much higher than that of the maximum temperature (0.27 °C/decade). The annual precipitation over China showed no linear trend. During 1961–2017, China is characterized by a rise in high temperature days, heavy rainfall days, and the number of typhoons. Annual mean sea level around China increased at an average rate of 3.3 mm/a from 1980 to 2017, which was higher than that of the world. Temperature in China will keep rising in the future and go up 1.3–5.0 °C by the end of the twenty-first century. The number of high temperature days and heat wave will also increase in the twenty-first century over China. And the annual precipitation, extreme precipitation, and extreme drought events in China will increase. The sea level in China will also continue to rise in the future.