Observed changes in extreme temperature over the global land based on a newly developed station daily dataset

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of changes in global land extreme temperature indices (1951–2015) based on the new global land surface daily air temperature dataset recently developed by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). The linear trends of the gridpoint time series and global land mean time series were calculated by using a Mann–Kendall method that accounts for the lag-1 autocorrelation in the time series of annual extreme temperature indices. The results, which are generally consistent with previous studies, showed that the global land average annual and seasonal mean extreme temperature indices series all experienced significant long-term changes associated with warming, with cold threshold indices (frost days, icing days, cold nights, and cold days) decreasing, warm threshold indices (summer days, tropical nights, and warm days) increasing, and all absolute indices (TXx, TXn, TNx, and TNn) also increasing, over the last 65 years. The extreme temperature indices series based on daily minimum temperatures generally had a stronger and more significant trend than those based on daily maximum temperatures. The strongest warming occurred after the mid-1970s, and a few extreme temperature indices showed no significant trend over the period from 1951 to the mid-1970s. Most parts of the global land experienced significant warming trends over the period 1951–2015 as a whole, and the largest trends appeared in mid- to high latitudes of the Eurasian continent.