Characteristics of Droughts from 1967 to 2022 in Eastern Guangdong
XIE Hanliang
CHEN Xun
LIN Xiaoyin
XU Qiongyun
CAI Mingshun
DING Lijia
Abstract：Based on the monthly data of temperature and precipitation from 20 national meteorological observation stations in eastern Guangdong from 1967 to 2022,this paper employed the methods of Standard-ized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index(SPEI),run theory,Empirical Orthogonal Function(EOF),drought frequency and intensity to study the drought characteristics in this part of the province.The results are shown as follows.Since the start of the 21st century,droughts have fluctuated by larger amplitudes and developed more seriously in eastern Guangdong,particularly in 2020 and 2021 when one of them was the most intense and lasted for the longest duration.Droughts took place at an average frequency of 28％and with an average of moderate severity.It was less likely for serious or extreme droughts to happen.Droughts were stronger in the north part than in the south.Although droughts were common in eastern Guangdong,it was unlikely for them to occur for more than four consecutive months,except for the areas of Chaozhou and Shantou where there were droughts with such long duration every 10 to 20 years.Most importantly,while the droughts were characterized by uniformly getting dry or wet,they fluctuated significantly in Chaozhou and Shantou,being relatively unstable.As the secondary feature,droughts were inversely changing between north and south,which was highly similar to the distribution pattern of the frequency and average intensity of the droughts.The anti-phase boundary was aligned with the mountain range in eastern Guangdong.
Keywords：climatologydroughtStandardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index(SPEI)run theoryEmpirical Orthogonal Function(EOF)eastern Guangdong
Publication Date：2025-02-19
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)