Changes in regional heavy rainfall events in China during 1961–2012

Abstract

A new technique for identifying regional climate events, the Objective Identification Technique for Regional Extreme Events (OITREE), was applied to investigate the characteristics of regional heavy rainfall events in China during the period 1961–2012. In total, 373 regional heavy rainfall events (RHREs) were identified during the past 52 years. The East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) had an important influence on the annual variations of China’s RHRE activities, with a significant relationship between the intensity of the RHREs and the intensity of the Mei-yu. Although the increase in the frequency of those RHREs was not significant, China experienced more severe and extreme regional rainfall events in the 1990s. The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the northern part of South China were the regions in the country most susceptible to extreme precipitation events. Some stations showed significant increasing trends in the southern part of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the northern part of South China, while parts of North China, regions between Guangxi and Guangdong, and northern Sichuan showed decreasing trends in the accumulated intensity of RHREs. The spatial distribution of the linear trends of events’ accumulated intensity displayed a similar so-called “southern flooding and northern drought” pattern over eastern China in recent decades.