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Based on the observations and the phase 6 of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) multimodel simulations, we conducted a detection and attribution analysis for the observed changes in intensity and frequency indices of extreme precipitation during 1961–2014 over the whole of China and within distinct climate regions across the country. A space–time analysis is simultaneously applied in detection so that spatial structure on the signals is considered. Results show that the CMIP6 models can simulate the observed general increases of extreme precipitation indices during the historical period except for the drying trends from southwestern to northeastern China. The anthropogenic (ANT) signal is detectable and attributable to the observed increase of extreme precipitation over China, with human-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) increases being the dominant contributor. Additionally, we also detected the ANT and GHG signals in China's temperate continental, subtropical–tropical monsoon, and plateau mountain climate zones, demonstrating the role of human activity in historical extreme precipitation changes on much smaller spatial scales. Significance Statement: The observed intensification of extreme precipitation globally has been attributed to human influences. Here, we demonstrate that anthropogenic forcing has discernably intensified extreme precipitation over the period 1961–2014, over China and in three of its four climate zones, with human-induced greenhouse gas increases being the dominant contributor. Our results strengthen the body of evidence that greenhouse gas increases are intensifying extreme precipitation by quantifying their role in observed changes at smaller regional scales than previously reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the written records and scores of grain harvest in the official historical documents of the Qing Dynasty in China, the spatial-temporal distribution and the impact caused by the 1759 AD drought in Northwest China were reconstructed, and the response of Chinese society to the drought at that time was summarized. In the spring and summer of 1759, vast areas of northern China suffered from drought, of which that experienced in the northwest region was the most serious. Starting from 27 April 1759, droughts covered Zhili, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces, and the droughts in Gansu and northern Shaanxi provinces lasted until 23 July 1759. This severe drought caused the worst crop failure in Northwest China during the period 1730–1900. By implementing a series of disaster relief measures, the Qing government managed to ease the adverse societal impact of the drought in the summer of 1760. Among the relief measures, tax reduction and exemption in disaster-stricken areas, grain storage in the northwest region, and bumper agricultural harvests in Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces in 1759 were the main reasons for the rapid recovery from the drought impacts. With better climatic conditions in the 18th century, China had higher agricultural harvest levels in the 18th century than in the 19th century. Favorable financial conditions increased drought relief efforts, which was the background for the greater societal adaptability to the climate disaster of 1759. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observations and model simulations have confirmed that the higher percentiles of precipitation intensity of all wet days have increased with the local daily dewpoint temperature at the Clausius–Clapeyron (C-C) rate of 7% °C−1 using the binning technique over China. It is uncertain whether the binning scaling rates will remain constant in the future climate. Here, we use daily precipitation and dewpoint temperature (DPT) over China from 20 CMIP6 models to examine and project the change of binning scaling of precipitation extremes. The results of the study suggest that the multimodel ensemble median (MEM) generally captures the spatial distribution of binning scaling rates and binning curves in different climate zones across China. The binning scaling rates have stability in the future but with a large increasing trend (more than 30%) in southeast China in the far future (2061–2100) under the SSP5-8.5 scenario. CMIP6 models project that both the peak of extreme precipitation and the temperature for the plateau mountain zone will increase in the far future under the SSP5-8.5 scenario, implying that the peak structure does not provide an upper limit for future precipitation extremes. Significance Statement: The binning scaling rates describe the relationship between precipitation extremes and temperature based on their day-to-day variations. However, it is still unclear whether the binning scaling rates of daily precipitation extremes with daily temperature will change in the future. We use 20 CMIP6 models to project the scaling rates of precipitation extremes with dewpoint temperature over China in the future. The results show that the sensitivity of precipitation extremes to dewpoint temperature will generally be stable, except that southeast China shows an increasing trend of up to 30%. Moreover, the peak of extreme precipitation and the temperature will increase with warming in the plateau mountain zone. Our results have implications for precipitation prediction and risk assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]