Global warming reaches Tibet; extreme weather on plateau

BEIJING: Global warming has reached the snow-capped Himalayas in southwest China's Tibet region as the Tibetan plateau is registering rising temperatures and extreme weather, an official climate report said.

The report on climate change and environmental monitoring in Tibet was published by Tibet Climate Centre said that the average temperature in Tibet has been rising by 0.31 degrees celsius every decade.

The report is based on analysis of climate data collected between 1961 and 2013.

Tibet is the highest region in the mid-latitudes, and seen as a barometer of global warming, Du Jun, deputy director of the centre, said.

Rising temperatures have been accompanied by increased precipitation, up by 6.6 millimetres every 10 years for the past five decades, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

There is also a trend of more severe extreme weather as the record low temperature of -36.7 degrees celsius and the record high temperature of 32.3 degrees celsius were logged in Tibet last year.

Du said with the pace of global warming, the average temperature in Tibet would rise by 1.96 degrees celsius from 2011 to 2100, which would be mainly through a rise of winter temperatures.

Warmer temperatures and increased precipitation are likely to add greenery to the plateau region, he said.