Temperature dependence of extreme precipitation over mainland China

Abstract

The relationship between extreme precipitation and the corresponding temperature is of great importance for predicting precipitation extremes in the future, given the rapid increase of global warming. This study investigates the relationship between extreme precipitation and the corresponding daily mean temperature over mainland China based on the China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (CMADS). The relationship between extreme precipitation and daily maximum temperature before rainfall as well as that between relative humidity and daily mean temperature is investigated. The results show that (1) Among the patterns of the relationship between extreme precipitation and corresponding daily mean temperature, the peak pattern is dominant over mainland China, accounting for 95.80% of all the patterns; (2) a scaling of extreme precipitation with daily mean temperature greater than that represented by the C–C scaling is observed in most parts of China; (3) the peak-point extreme precipitation decreases from the southeast to the northwest of China, whereas the peak-point temperature ranges from 15 °C to 25 °C; (4) for most regions of China, the decreases in the relative humidity and the cooling effect of heavy extreme precipitation and its synoptic system contribute to the peak or negative pattern of the relationship between extreme precipitation and the corresponding daily mean temperature; and (5) compared with the cooling effect, the decrease of relative humidity is the first-order reason for the peak or negative pattern of the relationship between extreme precipitation and the corresponding daily mean temperature.