Analysis of the temperature Variation Pattern under Climate Change in Northwest China

摘要

Northwestern China has an extremely complex climate due to the varied terrain and complexities of climate change where the environment is sensitive to both regional and global climate change. We applied the Mann-Kendal test to investigate trends in temperature change using annual, seasonal and monthly data recorded from 1960 to 2008. On the whole, annual, seasonal and monthly the temperature shows a widespread warming over this period. The variation in the precipitation pattern is more complex than that of the temperature. In the western region such as northern Xinjiang and western Qinghai, the precipitation has increased over the period, showing consistency with the change in temperature. Whereas in the eastern region such as eastern Gansu and southern Shanxi, the precipitation has remarkably decreased, which is opposite to the change observed in temperature.