Response of 50-year Regional Climatic Variation to Global Warming in the Desert Area of Northwestern China

The climate in desert is totally different from those in other landscapes. This paper, by analyzing the data collected in Minqin desert area during the period of 1961-2009, attempts to figure out how the temperature, precipitation and air humidity in the desert area of northwestern China respond to global warming. The result revealed that: the increasing rate of the mean annual temperature in Minqin during 1961-2009 was greater than that of the global average and that of the hundred-year average in China; whereas lower than that in the arid area in northeastern China in the recent 20 years. In Minqin, the temperatures in winter and spring rose significantly. The winter and spring temperatures and the annual maximum temperature showed big variations, with great fluctuations. The annual air humidity increased dramatically while the precipitation displayed an insignificant increasing trend. There was a significant correlation between air humidity rising and precipitation increasing. However, there’s no sound consistency between the periodic variations of air humidity and those of precipitation. The warmer spring usually induced intensive sandstorms, and the instability of air temperatures has caused yield reduction of crops/ fruits in the study area.