Articles | Volume 11, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1553-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1553-2015
Research article
 | 
20 Nov 2015
Research article |  | 20 Nov 2015

Temperature changes derived from phenological and natural evidence in South Central China from 1850 to 2008

J. Zheng, Z. Hua, Y. Liu, and Z. Hao

Abstract. Annual temperature anomalies in South Central China from 1850 to 2008 are reconstructed by synthesizing three types of proxies: spring phenodates of plants recorded in historical personal diaries and observations, snowfall days extracted from historical archives and observed at meteorological stations, and five tree-ring width chronologies. Instrumental observation data and the leave-one-out method are used for calibration and validation. The results show that the temperature series in South Central China exhibits interannual and decadal fluctuations since 1850. The first three cold decades were the 1860s, 1890s, and 1950s, while 1893 was very likely the coldest year. Except for the three warm decades that occurred around 1850, 1870, and 1960, along with the 1920s to the 1940s, the recent warm decades of the 1990s and 2000s represent unprecedented warming since 1850.

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Short summary
In this paper we reconstruct the annual temperature anomalies in South Central China from 1850 to 2008, using phenodates of plants, snowfall days, and five tree-ring width chronologies. It is found that rapid warming has occurred since the 1990s, with an abrupt change around 1997, leading to unprecedented variability in warming; a cold interval dominated the 1860s, 1890s, and 1950s; warm decades occurred around 1850, 1870, and 1960; and the warmest decades were the 1990s–2000s.