Abstract: The hydrological response to climate change has long been a focus in scientific community. There is an evidence of significant climate change over the past decades in northwest China. It is needed to assess the effects of the change of climate variables on hydrological cycle. In this paper, the daily data of runoff volume, air temperature and precipitation at Bayanbuluk Station in the Kaidu River Basin in Xinjiang during the period of 1980-2010 were collected, and the trend analysis and correlation analysis were used in the study. The result showed that there was an increase trend of average annual runoff volume in recent 30 years. Holistically, there was a slight change of runoff volume during the period from April to June, but an increase during the period from July to September. Runoff formation occurred mainly in summer, the maximum daily runoff volume occurred mostly in spring, especially in April and May. Further analyses showed that there were the significant effects of precipitation during the period from October to next March and temperature increase in spring on the extreme hydrological events in spring.

Key words: runoff volume, maximum daily runoff volume, air temperature, precipitation, Kaidu River Basin, Bayingolin, Xinjiang