Characteristics of Precipitation and Floods during Typhoons in Guangdong Province

Abstract

The spatial and temporal characteristics of precipitation and floods during typhoons in Guangdong province were examined by using TRMM TMPA 3B42 precipitation data and the Dominant River Routing Integrated with VIC Environment (DRIVE) model outputs for the period 1998–2019. The evaluations based on gauge-measured and model-simulated streamflow show the reliability of the DRIVE model. The typhoon tracks are divided into five categories for those that landed on or influenced Guangdong province. Generally, the spatial distribution of precipitation and floods differ for different typhoon tracks. Precipitation has a similar spatial distribution to flood duration (FD) but is substantially different from flood intensity (FI). The average precipitation over Guangdong province usually reaches its peak at the landing time of typhoons, while the average FD and FI reach their peaks several hours later than precipitation peak. The lagged correlations between precipitation and FD/FI are hence always higher than their simultaneous correlations.