China’s Disastrous Summer Floods Linked to Unusually Warm Spring in Tibet

A new study links devastating summer floods in southern China to unusually warm spring weather over the Tibetan plateau.

Historically, warmer springs in Tibet have led to wetter summers in southern China, while cooler springs led to drier summers. In Tibet, last spring was the warmest since 1980. The modeling study found that unusual May heat in Tibet was connected to heavy June rainfall in southern China, where flooding killed dozens of people and displaced tens of thousands more, largely in Guangdong Province.

The new study, published in Science Bulletin, also linked a warm Tibetan spring to heavier rainfall in Japan. The finding builds on prior research showing that a warm spring on the Tibetan plateau is linked with a more powerful East Asian monsoon and greater odds of flooding.

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