Arid Zone Research ›› 2024, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (8): 1259-1271.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2024.08.01

• Weather and Climate • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatiotemporal characteristics of different grades of precipitation in Yellow River Basin from 1960 to 2020

YUAN Zheng1(), ZHANG Zhigao2, YAN Jin2, LIU Jiayi2, HU Zhuyu2, WANG Yun3, CAI Maotang4()   

  1. 1. School of Mathematical and Information Science, Anyang Institute of Technology, Anyang 455000, Henan, China
    2. School of Resources Environment and Tourism, Anyang Normal University, Anyang 455000, Henan, China
    3. Dingxi Meteorological Office of Gansu, Dingxi 743000, Gansu, China
    4. Institute of Geomechanics, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
  • Received:2024-01-08 Revised:2024-04-15 Online:2024-08-15 Published:2024-08-22
  • Contact: CAI Maotang E-mail:yz_12250804@163.com;Caimaotang@126.com

Abstract:

The Yellow River Basin is an important ecologically fragile area in China. The clarification of the relationship between different levels of precipitation, precipitation days, and precipitation intensity in the basin is important to characterize the precipitation patterns in the basin. Using precipitation data collected from 96 meteorological stations in the Yellow River Basin from 1960 to 2020, the spatial and temporal variation characteristics of different grades of precipitation in the basin were analyzed using mathematical statistics and Pearson correlation analysis, and the contribution and impact of different grades of precipitation on the total precipitation were discussed. In the studied recent 61-year period, the annual precipitation and precipitation intensity in the Yellow River Basin followed increasing trends with rates of 0.008 mm·(10a)-1 and 0.12 mm·d-1·(10a)-1, respectively. The number of precipitation days followed a decreasing trend with a rate of -1.82 d·(10a)-1. The rainfall and days of light rain and moderate rain followed a downward trend; the amount and number of days of heavy rain, rainstorm, and heavy rainstorm followed an upward trend, and the precipitation intensity of each grade followed an increasing trend. Over the recent 61-year studied period, the highest occurrence rate of light rain was 84.32%, with the highest contribution rate from light rain (37.64%) followed by moderate rain (34.47%). The occurrence rate and contribution rate of light rain followed decreasing trends, whereas the occurrence rate and contribution rate of precipitation of heavy rain followed increasing trends. The areas with high values of light precipitation, light precipitation days, and light precipitation intensity were mainly concentrated in the southwest of the basin. As the precipitation level increased, the areas with high precipitation, precipitation days, and precipitation intensity were mainly concentrated in the southeast of the basin. Correlation analysis revealed that the annual precipitation of the Yellow River Basin was strongly affected by moderate and heavy rainfall, the annual precipitation days were strongly affected by the light rain days, and the annual precipitation intensity was strongly affected by the amount of heavy rain, rainstorm, and precipitation days. These findings can support ecological protection in the basin.

Key words: precipitation grade, spatio-temporal variation, precipitation intensity, climate inclination rate, Yellow River Basin