Temporal and Spatial Distribution of Maximum Daily Precipitation in Hengduan Mountainous Region of China and Its Probability Characteristics

Abstract

People often need precipitation data when building hydraulic engineering, especially the maximum daily precipitation data, so it is very important to study the maximum daily precipitation for hydraulic engineering. The spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of annual and seasonal maximum daily precipitation in the Hengduan Mountains were analyzed based on the maximum daily precipitation data collected at 30 meteorological stations between 1971 and 2013. The following results were obtained. The annual and seasonal maximum daily precipitation gradually increase from north to south; in comparison, the temporal variations in the annual and seasonal maximum daily precipitation are not significant. Except for winter, the standard deviations and coefficient of variation values of maximum daily precipitation in the other time scales are negatively correlated with both elevation and latitude, and most of those correlations are significant. Shape parameters of maximum daily precipitation have no significant correlation with either elevation or latitude, whereas the scale and location parameters have significant correlation with both elevation and latitude at different confidence levels. In addition, except for summer and autumn, there are significant negative correlations between maximum daily precipitation and elevation and latitude at different confidence levels during different return periods in the other time scales.