Temporal-spatial variability of modern climate in the Altai Mountains during 1970-2015

Located in the intermediate zone between the taiga forests in Siberian Plain and the deserts in Central Asia, the Altai Mountains are of scientific concern about Holocene climate change in the past decades. However, researches about modern climate changes are relatively scarce in the Altai Mountains. In this study, temporal- spatial changes of air temperature and precipitation were investigated systematically in the Altai Mountains based on fifteen meteorological records over the period of 1970–2015. The Altai Mountains experienced a rapid warming trend with a rate of 0.41°C/decade and an insignificantly wetting trend at a rate of 4.82 mm/decade during 1970–2015. The magnitude of temperature trend was negatively correlated with elevation in cold season (spring and winter), whereas that was positively correlated with elevation in warm season (summer and autumn). The cyclonic anomalies to the northwest and an anticyclonic anomalies to the southeast blocked the southward cold air and then provided the favorable condition for an increasing precipitation via the southwesternly wind in the Altai Mountains.