A collaborative research team from China has published a new analysis that shows the horizontal heat flux in the mixed layer plays a crucial role in extreme heat events in the North China Plain region.
Extreme heat over the North China Plain is happening with increasing frequency in recent years, posing a substantial threat to human health and social activities. Thus, the mechanism behind the formation of extreme heat is of wide concern.
Generally, large-scale anticyclonic circulation and descending flows lead to increases in air temperature. Previous studies have pointed out that extreme heat over the North China Plain is typically induced by the North China high.
However, an extreme heat event that happened in the North China Plain region during 12–13 July 2015, with maximum temperatures exceeding 40°C at some stations, was characterized by only a weak simultaneous appearance of an anomalous anticyclone and descending flow, suggesting that some other factor(s) may have induced this heat event.
Read more at Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
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