Projected heat wave increasing trends over China based on combined dynamical and multiple statistical downscaling methods

Extensive investigations on the projection of heat waves (HWs) were conducted on the basis of coarse-resolution global climate models (GCMs). However, these investigations still fail to characterise the future changes in HWs regionally over China. PRECIS dynamical downscaling with a horizontal resolution of 25 km × 25 km was employed on the basis of GCM-HadCM3 to provide reliable projections on HWs over the Chinese mainland, and six statistical downscaling methods were used for bias correction under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios. The multi-method ensemble (MME) of the top three dynamical downscaling methods with good performance was used to project future changes. Results showed that PRECIS primarily replicated the detailed spatiotemporal pattern of HWs. However, PRECIS overestimated the HWs in the Northwest and Southeast and expanded the areas of HWs in the Northeast and Southwest. Three statistical downscaling methods (quantile mapping, CDF-t and quantile delta mapping) demonstrated good performance in improving PRECIS simulation for reproducing HWs. By contrast, parametric-based trend-preserving approaches such as scaled distribution mapping and ISI-MIP are outperformed by the three aforementioned methods in downscaling HWs, particularly in the high latitudes of China. Based on MME projections, at the end of the 21st century, the national average of the number of HW days each year, the length of the longest HW event in the year and the extreme maximum temperature in HW will increase by 3 times, 1 time and 1.3 °C, respectively, under the RCP4.5 scenario, whilst that under the RCP8.5 scenario will increase by 8 times, 3 times and 3.7 °C, respectively, relative to 1986–2005. The Northwest is regionally projected to suffer long and hot HWs, whilst the South and Southeast will experience frequent consecutive HWs. Thus, HWs projected by the combined dynamical and statistical downscaling method are highly reliable in projecting HWs over China.