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Arid Land Geography ›› 2021, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (1): 55-62.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000–6060.2021.01.06

• Climatology and Hydrology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The first spring saturating rain in northwest China based on the relative humidity index

ZHU Biao1,2,3(),ZHANG Qiang1,2,3,LI Chunhua4,LU Guoyang1,3   

  1. 1. College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China
    2. Institute of Arid Meteorology, CMA, Lanzhou, Key Open Laboratory of Arid Climate Change and Disaster Reduction of CMA, Key Laboratory of Arid Climate Change and Reducing Disaster of Gansu Province, Lanzhou 730020, Gansu, China
    3. Gansu Province Meterology Bureau, Lanzhou 730000, Gansu, China
    4. Lanzhou Resources & Environment Voc-Tech College, Lanzhou 730021, Gansu, China
  • Received:2020-01-20 Revised:2020-08-18 Online:2021-01-25 Published:2021-03-09

Abstract:

Precipitation in spring has an important impact on agricultural production in the northwest of China, including Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, and Ningxia, where winter and spring wheat are the major crops, and it is crucial for winter wheat turning green and jointing and for spring wheat and autumn crop sowing. Therefore, the first saturating rain of spring that can relieve drought is one of the important concerns of scientific and technical researchers. At present, the identification of the first spring saturating rain in the four provinces of northwest China is mainly empirical. Although there is some exploration of this problem based on the spring drought index, there is a lack of the first spring saturating rain being determined based on theory. Using daily data of 249 meteorological stations in Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, and Shaanxi provinces from 1960—2016, the first spring saturating rainfall in northwest China, shown by theoretical calculation of potential evapotranspiration and the relative humidity index, which is consistent with the previous studies, is required to be 22 mm. Such results also represent the amount of precipitation that is required when the relative humidity index turns to “no drought” from “drought”. Furthermore, it can be defined as the penetration standard of the first spring saturating rain in northwest China that the 48-h precipitation is greater than or equal to 22 mm or the 24-h precipitation is greater than or equal to 15 mm. The method presented in this paper takes into consideration the characteristics of the relative humidity index, energy balance, and water-heat balance in each region of northwest China, and its theoretical basis is clear. The indices selected here are able to reflect the combined influence of the meteorological factors on the dry and wet conditions. Therefore, the threshold of the first saturating rain determined by this method is stable, with a small monthly difference. Meanwhile, the difference from the first spring rain penetration threshold is determined using the spring drought index, and this avoids the influence of the rapid increase in spring precipitation and temperature. These results compensate for the lack of empirical identification of the first rain penetration in spring in northwest China. At the same time, they can be used in monitoring and forecasting and are easily available for regional climate assessment.

Key words: relative humidity index, saturating rain, climate characteristics, the northwest China