China’s Qinghai Province on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, which is often referred to as the “roof of the world,” registered the warmest year in 2024, according to information released at a press conference on Friday.
At the event that unveiled Qinghai’s top 10 weather events in 2024, Guo Yingxiang, Deputy Director of the Qinghai climate centre, said that from 1961 to 2021, the annual average temperature in the province had been on a steeply rising trajectory, increasing by an average of 0.36 degrees Celsius every decade.
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In 2024, Qinghai Province experienced above-average temperatures and increased precipitation. The year logged an annual average temperature of 3.9 degrees Celsius, 1.1 degrees higher than the historical average, marking it as the warmest year for the province since meteorological records began in 1961.
Qinghai Province is experiencing rising temperatures and an increase in extreme warm weather events due to global climate change, Guo said.
The Qinghai-Xizang Plateau was becoming warmer, wetter and greener, said Yao Tandong, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in August last year.
According to Yao, the glaciers and snow cover on the plateau are decreasing, while the vegetation is greening, Xinhua news agency reported.
“Such changes could lead to significant shifts in the Asian monsoon circulation, potentially increasing the frequency of extreme weather events in China,” Yao said at a press conference of the second Qinghai-Xizang Plateau scientific expedition and research.
