Climatic characteristics of centennial and extreme precipitation in Hangzhou, China

Abstract The precipitation characteristics in Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province, China under the background of global climate change are analyzed using the meteorological observation data obtained from the Hangzhou base station in this study. We investigate the climate characteristics of precipitation in Hangzhou from several aspects, such as centennial trend, seasonal change, periodicity and the variation of extreme precipitation. Our results show a linear decreasing trend and obvious interdecadal characteristics in the precipitation of Hangzhou on a centennial timescale. Significantly increased amplitude of precipitation fluctuation was observed since the beginning of the 21st century. For the interdecadal variation of seasonal precipitation on a centennial timescale, precipitation in autumn showed a decreasing trend of 8.1 mm/10a, whereas the trends for the other three seasons were statistically insignificant. The precipitation in Hangzhou showed a decreasing trend in spring and an increasing trend in winter over the past 30 years. Our analyses reveal distinct precipitation cycles, including a quasi-30-year cycle since the 1960s and a quasi-10-year cycle since the 1980s. However, the periodicity has weakened in the past 10 years. In addition, the occurrence of torrential rain has increased rapidly in the past 10 years. Furthermore, influenced by global climate change and regional processes, the variation of extreme precipitation in Hangzhou has changed, which shows strong correlations with the overall trend of annual precipitation. The annual maximum daily precipitation in Hangzhou was mainly in the range of 0–40 mm from 1951 to 1980 and in the range of 40–80 mm from 1981 to 2010 with the maximum daily precipitation occurrence rate of 4.7 times/10a and 6.3 times/10a, respectively. This study emphasizes the risk of urban waterlogging caused by short-term heavy rainfall and provides useful reference to the assessment of extreme meteorological and hydrological disaster risk in Hangzhou.