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Refined characteristics of summer extreme humid-heat events in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region based on multi-source datasets
Acta Meteorologica Sinica 2026, 84(5): 904-919
Published: 25 October 2026
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Objectives

As China's political center and the economic hub of northern China, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region is characterized by a high population density and a complex industrial structure. Driven by global warming, summer extreme humid-heat events in this region have become increasingly frequent. These events severely disrupt daily life and economic activities, attracting widespread public concern. This study evaluates the capability of various datasets to capture the fine-scale spatiotemporal characteristics of daytime and nighttime extreme humid-heat events. The analysis is based on data collected between 2016 and 2023 from national meteorological stations, regional automatic weather stations, and the China Meteorological Administration Land Data Assimilation System (CLDAS).

Results

The results reveal a high degree of consistency among the three datasets in representing the annual climatic cycles of temperature and relative humidity, confirming their overall reliability for the region. However, discrepancies exist in the estimated frequency, intensity, and intraseasonal occurrence probability of extreme humid-heat events.

Conclusions

Further analysis reveals that these differences are closely associated with underlying terrain and land-surface features. For daytime events, regional stations in urban and plain areas record notably higher frequencies and intensities than both national stations and CLDAS, whereas the differences are relatively small in mountainous regions. For nighttime events, discrepancies among the datasets are more pronounced in urban and mountainous areas (with CLDAS exhibiting the most significant underestimation), whereas data consistency is relatively better in plain areas. Given that most national stations are located in urban areas, these discrepancies may indirectly reflect the climatic impact of urbanization on regional extreme humid-heat events.

Article Issue
Distinctive features and causes of the precipitation anomaly during flood seasons in the Beijing area
Acta Meteorologica Sinica 2024, 82(6): 733-747
Published: 31 December 2024
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Beijing, a prominent megacity in China, experiences notable interannual variation in its seasonal precipitation cycle, which exerts substantial influences on both economic activities and societal well-being. Based on daily precipitation observations collected at 20 meteorological stations in Beijing over the period from 1981 to 2022, this study reveals spatiotemporal variability characteristics of local precipitation seasonal cycle anomalies and elucidates their underlying causes using self-organizing mapping neural networks and statistical diagnostic methods. The seasonal cycle of precipitation anomalies during the flood season in Beijing manifests four distinct types. Notably, two archetypal features, namely "persistent drought or flood" and "rapid change of drought and flood", are directly linked to circulation anomalies with the barotropic structure over the Sea of Japan. These two types account for 45.2% and 54.8% of the total samples, respectively. In years characterized by persistent droughts or floods, the occurrence of a high-pressure (low-pressure) anomaly over the Sea of Japan triggers a coupling of mid-latitude Mongolian cyclones and the South Asian high. Consequently, a low-level northerly (southerly) anomaly prevails in the local area, inhibiting (facilitating) moisture transport from the Northwest Pacific and resulting in sustained deficient (sufficient) precipitation. In the years featuring rapid changes in drought and flood, when an anomalous low (high) pressure system prevails over the Sea of Japan in July and the Western Pacific Subtropical High anomalously shifts southward (northward), precipitation in Beijing region significantly reduces (increases). In August, with the abnormal strengthening (weakening) of the Mongolian cyclone and the transition to an anomalous high (low) pressure system over the Sea of Japan, precipitation in Beijing region increases (decreases) subsequently. Furthermore, persistent drought- or flood-type anomalies exhibit a significant correlation with extratropical sea surface temperature. In contrast, drought-flood rapid transition anomalies are strongly associated not only with tropical El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events but also with 10—30-day intraseasonal oscillation of local precipitation.

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