Hot season gets hotter due to rainfall delay over tropical land in a warming climate
Abstract Tropical land generally experiences the hottest period (spring) in a year just before the onset of wet season. Previous studies suggested that in a warming climate, the wet season would come later, but its origin is debated and its impact on temperature remains unknown. Here, we find that t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57501-6 |
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| author | Fengfei Song Hongqiang Dong Lixin Wu L. Ruby Leung Jian Lu Lu Dong Peili Wu Tianjun Zhou |
| author_facet | Fengfei Song Hongqiang Dong Lixin Wu L. Ruby Leung Jian Lu Lu Dong Peili Wu Tianjun Zhou |
| author_sort | Fengfei Song |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Tropical land generally experiences the hottest period (spring) in a year just before the onset of wet season. Previous studies suggested that in a warming climate, the wet season would come later, but its origin is debated and its impact on temperature remains unknown. Here, we find that the warming of hot season would be amplified under global warming, and refer to it as “hot-season-gets-hotter” phenomenon. The amplified hot season warming is closely tied to the amplified warming of hot temperature percentiles. The hot-season-gets-hotter phenomenon is mainly due to the rainfall delay and most evident in the Amazon, where spring is warming by almost 1 K more than the annual mean and the 99th percentile temperatures are warming ~30% more than the mean by the end of 21st century in a high emission scenario. Comparing experiments with and without land-atmosphere coupling, it is further found that the rainfall delay is initially driven by the enhanced effective atmospheric heat capacity and then substantially amplified by positive soil moisture-atmosphere feedback. In the satellite period, observations consistently show that the hot-season-gets-hotter phenomenon has already emerged along with the rainfall delay in the Amazon. Intensified hot and dry spring climate can enhance risks of drought, heatwaves and wildfires, threatening the Amazon forest and habitats in the tropics. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-aa7cc0f5113f44faaf7461036d360dcb |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-aa7cc0f5113f44faaf7461036d360dcb2025-08-20T03:06:00ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-03-0116111010.1038/s41467-025-57501-6Hot season gets hotter due to rainfall delay over tropical land in a warming climateFengfei Song0Hongqiang Dong1Lixin Wu2L. Ruby Leung3Jian Lu4Lu Dong5Peili Wu6Tianjun Zhou7Frontier Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System and Physical Oceanography Laboratory, Ocean University of ChinaFrontier Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System and Physical Oceanography Laboratory, Ocean University of ChinaFrontier Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System and Physical Oceanography Laboratory, Ocean University of ChinaAtmospheric, Climate, and Earth Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryAtmospheric, Climate, and Earth Sciences Division, Pacific Northwest National LaboratoryFrontier Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System and Physical Oceanography Laboratory, Ocean University of ChinaMet Office Hadley CentreLASG, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of ScienceAbstract Tropical land generally experiences the hottest period (spring) in a year just before the onset of wet season. Previous studies suggested that in a warming climate, the wet season would come later, but its origin is debated and its impact on temperature remains unknown. Here, we find that the warming of hot season would be amplified under global warming, and refer to it as “hot-season-gets-hotter” phenomenon. The amplified hot season warming is closely tied to the amplified warming of hot temperature percentiles. The hot-season-gets-hotter phenomenon is mainly due to the rainfall delay and most evident in the Amazon, where spring is warming by almost 1 K more than the annual mean and the 99th percentile temperatures are warming ~30% more than the mean by the end of 21st century in a high emission scenario. Comparing experiments with and without land-atmosphere coupling, it is further found that the rainfall delay is initially driven by the enhanced effective atmospheric heat capacity and then substantially amplified by positive soil moisture-atmosphere feedback. In the satellite period, observations consistently show that the hot-season-gets-hotter phenomenon has already emerged along with the rainfall delay in the Amazon. Intensified hot and dry spring climate can enhance risks of drought, heatwaves and wildfires, threatening the Amazon forest and habitats in the tropics.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57501-6 |
| spellingShingle | Fengfei Song Hongqiang Dong Lixin Wu L. Ruby Leung Jian Lu Lu Dong Peili Wu Tianjun Zhou Hot season gets hotter due to rainfall delay over tropical land in a warming climate Nature Communications |
| title | Hot season gets hotter due to rainfall delay over tropical land in a warming climate |
| title_full | Hot season gets hotter due to rainfall delay over tropical land in a warming climate |
| title_fullStr | Hot season gets hotter due to rainfall delay over tropical land in a warming climate |
| title_full_unstemmed | Hot season gets hotter due to rainfall delay over tropical land in a warming climate |
| title_short | Hot season gets hotter due to rainfall delay over tropical land in a warming climate |
| title_sort | hot season gets hotter due to rainfall delay over tropical land in a warming climate |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57501-6 |
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