On Prediction of Record-Breaking Daily Temperature Events

The daily maximum/minimum temperature data at 740 stations in China from 1960 to 2005 were analyzed to reveal the statistical characteristics of record-breaking (RB) daily extreme temperature events in the past 46 yr. It is verified that the observational daily extreme temperatures obey the Gaussian distribution.The expected values of RB extreme temperatures were obtained based on both the Gaussian distribution model and the initial condition of observed historical RB high/low temperature events after tedious theoretical derivation. The results were then compared with those obtained by the iteration computation of the pure theoretical model. The comparison suggests that the results from the former are more consistent with the observations than those from the latter. Based on the above analyses, prediction of future possible RB high/low temperature events is made, and the spatial distributions of maximum/minimum theoretical values of their intensities are also given. It is indicated that the change amplitudes of future extreme temperatures di?er evidently from place to place, showing a remarkable regional feature: the future extremely high temperature events will have a strong rising intensity in Southwest China, and a relatively weak rising intensity in western China; while the largest decrease of the future extremely low temperature events will appear in Northeast China and the north of Northwest China, and the decrease will be maintained relatively stable in space in Central China and Southwest China, in comparison with the historical low temperature pattern. Features in the occurrence time of the future RB temperature events are also illustrated.