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It is crucial to investigate the characteristics of meteorological drought in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region to improve the accuracy of agriculture and water resource monitoring and management. In this study, using instrumental observation data from 85 meteorological stations in the BTH region during 1961–2023 derived from the National Meteorological Information Center, we first calculated the meteorological drought comprehensive index (MCI) and analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics of the MCI. In the BTH region, the MCI intensity from May to June was the most severe in the intraseasonal variation. The trend of the decreasing drought intensity in May–June has occurred for the past 60 years. The southern region in the BTH region was more likely to experience droughts. Next, the spatial patterns of the top two EOF modes of the May–June MCI were depicted. The primary spatial pattern of the BTH, which was characterized by consistent changes in the MCI throughout the entire BTH region, could be represented by the first mode's R2 of 69.01%. Then, we compared the spatial pattern of the MCI intensity under different return periods. Using the May–June MCI of 1961–2023, the drought intensity gradually increased from northwest to southeast for the 10-, 20-, and 50-year return periods. However, the drought intensity decreased and then increased from northwest to southeast based on the 1991–2023 MCI. Notably, a 20-year return period of severe drought affected Beijing and northern Hebei in 2023. Finally, we discussed the linkages of drought in the BTH region and atmospheric circulation/sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies, which were calculated using the Pearson correlation coefficient and wavelet coherence. We suggest that the MCI variations in the BTH region may be related to the SST anomalies of the Indian Ocean in 1961–1990 and the Pacific Ocean in 1991–2023, respectively. The abovementioned studies have enlightened us to focus on predicting the Pacific SST for drought, which will facilitate agricultural production and water resource management in the BTH region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroclimate variations over eastern China are affected by the Asian monsoon, exhibiting great variability and frequent extreme events occurrence. However, the driving mechanisms of their spatial and temporal variabilities are not fully understood due to the short period of available climate observation data. Here we used interpolated dry/wet grades dataset derived from Chinese historical documents and method of regional division to reconstruct a new annual hydroclimatic variation dataset dating back 1000 years, including nine regions of eastern China. This dataset reveals the spatial coverage and trend of long‐lasting extreme drought and flood events, and discloses the spatial patterns and similarities of interannual (2–7‐year) and interdecadal (15–35‐year) hydroclimate variations under the different temperature backgrounds of the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), Little Ice Age (LIA) and Current Warm Period. Although no obvious drying or wetting trends were detected in the past 1000 years, the frequencies of extreme flood and drought events during the two warm periods of 960–1300 and 1901–2000 were higher than those during the cold period of 1301–1900. There are 17 long‐lasting and even severe than 1637–1641 large spatial scale extreme drought events during the past 1000 years. The observed spatial dipole pattern of flooding in the south and drought in the north, or the opposite pattern, was rare during the historical period. However, it was the second leading mode explaining the low variances in the principal component analysis for 2–7‐year hydroclimatic variations, which were not related to temperature change. Moreover, the stability of the teleconnection between the hydroclimate over eastern China and the climatic modes of Pacific Decadal Oscillation and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation was further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major droughts and floods in the Hanjiang River Basin, central China, have a significant impact on flood prevention and control in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and water resources management in the areas of the South–North Water Diversion Middle Line Project. However, there is a lack of understanding of the multi-decadal to centennial-scale patterns of extreme droughts and floods in the area. Applying the yearly drought and flood records from historical documents and precipitation data in the period of instrumental measurements, this study constructs a time series of extreme droughts and floods in the Hanjiang River Basin from 1426–2017 and analyzes the temporal and spatial characteristics of the extreme drought and flood event variations. The results show that there were a total of 45 extreme droughts and 52 extreme floods in the basin over the past 592 years. Extreme droughts and floods were highly variable on a multi-decadal to centennial scale, and the frequencies were higher in the first and last 100 years or so of the study period and lower in between. Spatially, the frequencies of extreme droughts and floods were generally higher in the middle and lower reaches than in the upper reaches. It was also found that there is a good correlation of drought and flood frequencies between the upper Hanjiang River Basin and North China. These results are informative for the study of mechanisms and predictability of multi-decadal to centennial-scale variability of extreme hydroclimatic events in the river basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hydroclimatic patterns in eastern China (EC) over the past millennium, both influenced by solar activity and Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO), are presented based on the climatic reconstructions and simulations. For strong solar activity, a consistent pattern exists where drought appears in the majority of EC initialized from the cold PDO phase, which is related to less moisture caused by the negative East Asia/Pacific-like (EAP-like) pattern and the enhanced western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH). When the initial condition with a neutral or warm PDO phase is set up, there is a tripole-like pattern from north to south, i.e., drought–flood–drought for the neutral PDO phase and flood–drought–flood for the warm PDO phase, which is related to the positive EAP-like pattern with various moisture transportation paths. For weak solar activity, there are dipole-like patterns where drought occurs in the northern part of the Yangtze River and flood appears in the southern part initialized from the cold or warm PDO phase, which is possibly related to the influence of the weakened WPSH. When the initial condition is the neutral PDO phase, there is a tripole-like pattern from north to south (flood–drought–flood) in EC affected by the weakened WPSH and the intensive India–Burma trough. Notably, the vertical velocity anomalies of airflow, representing the vertical moisture transportations, correspond well with the hydroclimatic patterns in EC whenever the various initialization strategies of PDO phases are employed. • Hydroclimatic patterns in eastern China (EC) are related to solar activity and PDO. • A consistent pattern in EC for strong solar period (SS) and cold PDO initial phase. • The tripole-like patterns for SS and the neutral or warm PDO initial phase. • A tripole-like pattern for weak solar period (WS) and neutral PDO initial phase. • The dipole-like patterns for WS and the cold or warm PDO initial phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]