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Persistent extreme heat events (PEHEs) exert a more negative impact on society, including agriculture, plant phenology, power production and human health, compared to general EHEs. The temporal and spatial characteristics of summer PEHEs in eastern China were analysed based on a daily maximum temperature dataset from 759 stations over the period of 1961–2018. The results show the following: Persistent distributions of PEHEs show that they are characterized by an exponential decay with a drop in the decay rate. In terms of spatial distribution, there is an apparent regional difference in the duration of PEHEs. North China is dominated by multi-frequency and short-duration EHEs, while South China is the opposite. PEHEs in North China and the Huanghuai region mainly occur in June-July but mostly in July and August in South China. Strongly responding to global warming, the frequency and duration of PEHEs in North China have increased since the 1990s. However, the frequency of PEHEs in North China and the Huanghuai region has shown opposite trends in June-July since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Affected by the atmospheric circulations, the regional differences in PEHE frequency are also apparent. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the PEHEs in North China and the Huanghuai area have shown an increasing trend in August. The short-term PEHEs in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and South China increased rapidly in the 2000s, while long-term PEHEs increased in the 2010s. This study implies that attention should be paid to not only the frequency of EH days but also to the persistence of EHE which is a key characteristic of damaging EH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using the hindcast and forecast data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Climate Forecast System version 2 (NCEP CFSv2) for the 1982–2018 period, we investigate the forecasting skills of the mid‐summer (July and August) surface air temperature (SAT) at interannual timescales in this study. Although CFSv2 predictions show a warm bias for the climatological mean SAT over the Yangtze River valley (25°–32°N, 105°–122°E), they show a consistent and great performance in predicting the interannual variability of the mid‐summer SAT over this region until 4 months in advance, where the linear correlation coefficient between the predicted and observed time series reaches +0.65, +0.51 and + 0.68 for 4, 2 and 0 months in advance, respectively. The CFSv2 predictions well simulate the linkage between the SAT anomalies over the Yangtze River valley and the anomalous atmospheric circulation aloft, including the circumglobal teleconnection and zonal extension of the Western Pacific Subtropical High. However, CFSv2 has trouble in simulating the associated vertical velocity, cloud cover and solar radiation anomalies, except for 0 months in advance. The persistent forecasting skills result from the accurate response of the circumglobal teleconnection and Western Pacific Subtropical High to the El Niño/Southern Oscillation and sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the mid‐latitude North Atlantic. Correspondingly, the forecasting skill, signal and signal‐to‐noise ratio are effectively improved in the years with strong mid‐summer SST anomalies over the tropical central‐eastern Pacific or mid‐latitude North Atlantic. These results are useful for understanding the predictability of the mid‐summer SAT over the Yangtze River valley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]