Arid Zone Research ›› 2021, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (3): 764-774.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2021.03.18

• Applied Climate • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatial-temporal variations of extreme precipitation indices and their response to atmospheric circulation factors in the Weihe River Basin

ZOU Lei1(),YU Jiangyou2,WANG Feiyu1,ZHANG Yan3   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
    2. Kunming Engineering Corporation Limited of Power China, Kunming 650051, Yunnan, China
    3. Institute of Farmland Irrigation, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang 453002, Henan, China
  • Received:2020-04-24 Revised:2020-12-01 Online:2021-05-15 Published:2021-06-17

Abstract:

Six extreme precipitation indices, including PRCPTOT, SDII, Rx1day, Rx5day, R95P, and R99P, were calculated using the daily precipitation data of 28 meteorological stations in the Weihe River Basin, from 1961 to 2017, to represent extreme precipitation characteristics. The Mann-Kendall trend and continuous wavelet tests were used to analyze the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of extreme precipitation. The potential influences of anomalous atmospheric circulation factors on extreme precipitation were explored using the cross-wavelet analysis technique. From 1961 to 2017, the extreme precipitation indices showed a decreasing trend in the Weihe River Basin. The extreme precipitation indices increased from northwest to southeast, and the southeastern area of the basin was wetter than the northwest. After 1990, the inter-annual fluctuation of the extreme precipitation index increased significantly and the degree and probability of extreme flood events in the basin had an upward trend. Among the selected anomalous atmospheric circulation factors, the Southern Oscillation Index had the most significant effect on extreme precipitation. The higher the SOI value, the higher the probability of occurrence of less rain, while the smaller the SOI value, the higher the probability of more rain and flood events occurring. This study improves our understanding of the influence of climate change on extreme precipitation, and it improves our capacity to prevent climate disasters.

Key words: Weihe River Basin, extreme precipitation index, spatial-temporal variation characteristics, anomalous atmospheric circulation factors