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Changing structure of the precipitation process during 1960–2005 in Xinjiang, China

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Abstract

Using daily precipitation data spanning 1960–2005 from 51 meteorological stations in Xinjiang province, China, spatial and temporal changes in consecutive maximum wet days in the year, summer, and winter were investigated. Fifteen precipitation extreme indices, which reflect the attributes of consecutive maximum wet days, were defined, and the modified Mann–Kendall test was applied to detect the tendencies, and changes in the indices were evaluated through linear regression with the F test. Results showed that: (1) two consecutive wet days occurred most frequently in the year and summer, and the fractional contributions and precipitation intensities decreased as the duration increased; in winter, one wet day had the maximum possibility, fractional contributions decreased and intensities increased as the duration increased. (2) The possibility of consecutive wet days which had short durations reduced, while those of long durations increased; annual fractional contributions of short durations decreased, while those of long durations increased; summer and winter fractional contribution of all durations decreased first and then increased; the intensities of all durations increased. (3) The wet tendency was identified in Xinjiang; the wet trend in Southern Xinjiang was more significant than Northern Xinjiang in summer, while in winter the wet tendency in Northern Xinjiang was more pronounced.

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Acknowledgments

This work is financially supported by Xinjiang Technology Program (grant no.: 201001066; 200931105), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no.: 41071020; 50839005), the Project from Guangdong Science and Technology Department (grant no.: 2010B050800001; 2010B050300010), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities), and by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (project no. CUHK405308). Last but not the least, our cordial gratitude should also goes to the editor, Prof. Dr. Hartmut Graßl, and two anonymous reviewers for their pertinent and professional comments and suggestions which are greatly helpful for further improvement of the quality of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qiang Zhang.

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Zhang, Q., Li, J., Singh, V.P. et al. Changing structure of the precipitation process during 1960–2005 in Xinjiang, China. Theor Appl Climatol 110, 229–244 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-012-0611-4

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