Climate Changes in the Amur River Basin in the Last 115 Years

P. V. Novorotskii

Tendencies in climate change in the Amur River basin are generally synchronous to the global ones. During the last century, the annual mean temperature of surface air increased by 1.3°C, minimum warming being observed in the east part of the basin (0.6°C) and maximum one in the west part (1.7–2.5°C). The largest impact on the annual mean temperature growth comes from winter and spring temperature increase (2–4°C/100 years). During the last 30 years, the warming rate in the basin was 2–3 times higher than during the whole period of 1891–2004. Simultaneously with warming in the Amur River basin, annual and warm-season precipitation totals increased by 8 and 6%, respectively, during the 115-year period. The highest increase in precipitation totals occurs in cold season (29% during 115 years). During the last 30 years, together with intense warming in the Amur River basin, the annual precipitation totals are found to decrease by an average of 2.1%/10 years.