Qian Cheng and his research team, Chinese Academy of Science
Since the middle of December 2023, North China, the Huang-Huai area, Northeast China, and Inner Mongolia have experienced the coldest regional average temperatures for this period since 1961. However, it is likely that the severe cold would be even more common and extreme in the absence of anthropogenic climate change. A rapid attribution study on the recent extreme cold weather shows that, if anthropogenic climate change were not a factor, an event of this kind would be 14 times more likely and around 1.9°C colder.
But the team behind this research highlights the complex impact of anthropogenic climate change on the weather. While the chances of extreme cold weather events have decreased, there has been a rise in both the frequency and intensity of other extreme events like heatwaves and heavy precipitation-heatwave combinations, posing a significant threat to human life.
