State of China’s climate in 2023OA

China witnessed a warm and dry climate in 2023.The annual surface air temperature reached a new high of 10.71℃,with the hottest autumn and the second hottest summer since 1961.Meanwhile,the annual precipitation was the second lowest since 2012,at 615.0 mm.Precipitation was less than normal from winter to summer,but more in autumn.Consistent with the annual condition,precipitation in the flood season from May to September was also the second lowest since 2012,which was 4.3%less than normal,with the anomalies in the central and eastern parts of China being higher in central areas and lower in the north and south.On the contrary,the West China Autumn Rain brought much more rainfall than normal,with an earlier start and later end.Although there was less annual precipitation in 2023,China suffered seriously from heavy precipitation events and floods.In particular,from the end of July to the beginning of August,a rare,extremely strong rainstorm caused by Typhoon Dussuri hit Beijing,Tianjin,and Hebei,causing an abrupt alteration from drought to flood conditions in North China.By contrast,Southwest China experienced continuous drought from the previous autumn to current spring.In early summer,North China and the Huanghuai region experienced the strongest high-temperature process since 1961.Nevertheless,there were more cold-air processes than normal impacting China,with the most severe of the year occurring in mid-January.Unexpectedly,in spring,there were more sand and dust occurrences in northern China.