Anticipated changes in the diurnal cloud cycle (DCC) under global warming carry significant implications for future climate predictions. However, there is a notable dearth of studies specifically focusing on DCC shifts. Here, we establish a connection between DCC and its radiative effects (DCCRE), revealing that the DCC has tended to warm the climate over the past 13 years. We found that the centroid position determines the warming or cooling effect of DCCRE, while the magnitude of the amplitude influences its strength. As global mean temperature (GMT) rises, low cloud centroid tends to shift from daytime to nighttime, enhancing nighttime warming effects and diminishing solar radiation reflection. Conversely, high clouds exhibit the opposite, reducing nighttime warming effects and displaying stronger DCCRE compared to low clouds. For each 1 °C increase in GMT, the total cloud DCCRE is expected to rise by 2.90 W m−2, mainly driven by low clouds contributing to an increase of 1.85 W m−2. This suggests that DCCRE may continue to warm the climate as GMT rises. These results indicate that the changes in DCC are significant for understanding climate variability. However, it should be noted that these findings are based on short-term regression analysis and further research is needed to determine whether they are related to long-term responses.

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