Research Seminar: From the 2021 Henan flooding to 2022 summer heatwaves: influence of global warming on extreme weather and climate
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Date
12 Dec 2022
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Organiser
Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI)
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Time
20:00 - 21:00
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Venue
online via Zoom
Speaker
Dr. Xuebin Zhang
Enquiry
Ms Anna Choi 3400 8158 anna.choi@polyu.edu.hk
Remarks
Deadline for registration: 10:00am, 9 Dec 2022
Summary
The July 2021 historical rainstorms in Henan resulted in server flooding, causing devastating loss of lives and damage. The event was so extreme that it’s maximum 1-hour rainfall sets a new hourly precipitation record for China. China also experienced persistent widespread heatwaves in the summer 2022, with the summer mean temperature setting a new record. These events occurred on the backdrop of global warming. This presentation will place those events in the context of global warming, covering the following aspects. The human emission of greenhouse gases has changed the global climate and climate change is already affecting every region on Earth, in multiple ways. Human influence has also changed China’s climate including weather and climate extremes. Both the 2021 Henan flooding and recent summer heatwaves would not have been so extreme (bad) without human-induced climate change. Past change will continue in the future, the magnitude of future change depends on the amount of future emission. Reducing emission to slow down climate change and adapting to future new climate are both important.
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Xuebin Zhang
Senior Research Scientist with Climate Research Division
Environment and Climate Change Canada
Dr. Xuebin Zhang is Senior Research Scientist with Climate Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada. He is recognized for his contribution to the understanding of how and why the climate, in particular its extreme weather and climate events, has changed over the past century and how it is likely to change in the future. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He serves as a co-lead of the World Climate Research Program’s Global Extremes Platform, Editor-in-Chief for journal Weather and Climate Extremes. He was a coordinating lead author for the IPCC 6th Assessment Report WGI Report for the chapter assessing changes in extremes and was a lead author for two other IPCC Assessment reports.
