Journal of Geographical Sciences >
Variations in the starting date of the pre-summer rainy season in South China, 1736-2010
About author: Ding Lingling (1984-), PhD, specialized in climate changes. E-mail: linglingding@gmail.com
*Corresponding author: Hao Zhixin (1975-), PhD, specialized in climate changes. E-mail: haozx@igsnrr.ac.cn
Accepted date: 2014-02-12
Online published: 2014-05-20
Supported by
Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.XDA05080100.“135” strategic Research Project of IGSNRR, CAS, No.2012ZD001.Basic Research Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, No.2011FY120300
Copyright
The starting dates of the pre-summer rainy season during historical times (1736- 1911) in Fuzhou and Guangzhou of South China, were determined and reconstructed on the basis of historical documents in the Yu-Xue-Fen-Cun archive, together with observed features of precipitation during the pre-summer rainy season. In addition, starting dates of the pre-summer rainy season from 1953 in Fuzhou and from 1952 in Guangzhou were reconstructed for the instrumental period. These data allowed for analyses of inter-annual and inter-decadal changes in the starting dates of the pre-summer rainy season in South China over the past 300 years. Results show that the mean starting date of the pre-summer rainy season in South China was the first pentad of May; in addition, periodicities in the starting dates of 2-3 years, 10 years, and 40 years were detected during the period 1736-1911, and of 2-3 years, 10 years, and 22 years during the instrumental period. From 1736 to 1911, the earliest starting dates at Fuzhou and Guangzhou both occurred at the fourth pentad of April, while the latest starting dates were at the sixth pentad of May in Fuzhou and the first pentad of June in Guangzhou. During the instrumental period, the earliest and latest starting dates were at the fourth pentad of April and the first pentad of June, respectively, in both Fuzhou during 1953-2010 and Guangzhou during 1952-2010. The maximum difference between neighboring decades during 1736-1911 was 2.2 and 1.6 pentads in Fuzhou and Guangzhou, respectively, and during the instrumental period it was 2.5 and 2.4 pentads in Fuzhou and Guangzhou, respectively.
DING Lingling , GE Quansheng , ZHENG Jingyun , HAO Zhixin . Variations in the starting date of the pre-summer rainy season in South China, 1736-2010[J]. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2014 , 24(5) : 845 -857 . DOI: 10.1007/s11442-014-1124-0
Table 1 Total pieces for each recording format categories from the Yu-Xue-Fen-Cun records in Fuzhou and Guangzhou, 1736-1911 |
Sites | I | II | III | IV | V | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fuzhou | 6 | 305 | 119 | 272 | 715 | 1417 |
Guangzhou | 0 | 278 | 20 | 14 | 900 | 1212 |
Total Proportion (%) | 6 | 583 | 139 | 286 | 1615 | 2629 |
0.2 | 22.2 | 5.3 | 10.9 | 61.4 | 100.0 |
Figure 1 Starting dates of the pre-summer rainy season in Fuzhou and Guangzhou during the period 1736-2010Note: Pentad 22, which is the 22nd pentad of the year, is equivalent to the fourth pentad of April; pentad 23 means the fifth pentad of April, and so on. The bold lines are 11-year running means; the dotted lines represent the means of the data. |
Figure 2 Wavelet transforms of the starting dates of the pre-summer rainy season in Fuzhou and Guangzhou during 1736-1911 (Note: The dotted line circled areas mean the advanced rainy season, while the solid lines circled areas mean the delayed rainy season.) |
Figure 3 The same as Figure 2, but in Fuzhou during 1953-2010 and Guangzhou during 1952-2010 |
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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