Trends of maximum temperature, minimum temperature and diurnal temperature range and their correlations with urbanisation in Xiamen, China

Abstract

This study examines variations of maximum temperature, minimum temperature and diurnal temperature range (DTR) and their possible correlations to urbanisation in Xiamen, a coastal city in SE China. The underlying meteorological data used are the daily temperature time series from Xiamen Meteorological Station from 1954 to 2007. We selected four urbanisation indices, urban population, gross domestic product, built-up area and gross electricity consumption, to investigate correlations with temperature variables over the period 1981–2007. The results show that annual maximum temperature, minimum temperature and DTR increased from 1954 to 2007 at a rate of 0.33°C/10 years, 0.18°C/10 years and 0.15°C/10 years, respectively. Similarly, the seasonal maximum temperature, minimum temperature and DTR rose over the same period, with stronger increasing trends in winter and summer than in spring and autumn. The four selected urbanisation indices were all positively correlated with the three temperature variables, although more significantly with maximum and minimum temperatures than with DTR. The influence of urbanisation appears to be slightly stronger on maximum temperature than on minimum temperature in this area.

Keywords:

• diurnal temperature range
• linear regression
• climate change
• coastal city
• maritime climate

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-BR-03; 09L4401D10 and 07L4151D40). We thank Prof. Shaopeng Huang of the Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, and Fanghong Shuai and Yangxia Huang of the Xiamen Meteorological Administration.