Analysis of climate change in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area from 1961 to 2018

Climate change has a major impact on the development of the regional economy. Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is one of the regions with the strongest economic vitality in China; understanding the climate change patterns in the Greater Bay Area is the basis for addressing issues associated with climate change. Base on temperature, precipitation and sunshine hours data at 26 meteorological observation stations during 1961-2018 in the Greater Bay Area, the characteristics of climate change in the Greater Bay Area were analyzed by trend analysis, mutation analysis and so on. The results show that the consistent change among stations are their main feature for temperature, precipitation and sunshine hours in the Greater Bay Area stations from 1961 to 2018. The annual average temperature in the Greater Bay Area increased significantly at a heating rate of 0.22℃·(10 a)^-1 in the past 58 years. It is higher than the heating rate for Guangdong Province (0.18℃·(10 a)^-1, which is lower than the heating rate in China and Asia. Shunde, Panyu, Doumen, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Nanhai are the most obvious areas where the annual average temperature rises in the Greater Bay Area, while Huidong, Macao and Zengcheng have the lowest temperature rise. The trend of annual precipitation in the Greater Bay Area is not obvious in the recent 58 years. The annual sunshine hours decreased significantly at a rate of 60.1 h/10 a, which was much higher than the average for Guangdong Province and for average over China. The annual precipitation in Guangzhou increased significantly, while the changes in Hong Kong and Macao were not obvious from 1951 to 2018.