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Arid Land Geography ›› 2025, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (12): 2122-2131.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000-6060.2025.082

• Climate Change and Surface Process • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatiotemporal variation of summer precipitation on the central northern slope of the Central Tianshan Mountains: A case study of Urumqi County

MIAO Yunling1,2(), HUO Da1, YAO Fang1, JIANG Yuan’an3()   

  1. 1 Urumqi Meteorological Bureau, Urumqi 830002, Xinjiang, China
    2 Dabancheng Special Test Field base of National Integrated Meteorological Observation, Urumqi 830006, Xinjiang, China
    3 Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Meteorological Observatory, Urumqi 830002, Xinjiang, China
  • Received:2025-02-20 Revised:2025-04-22 Online:2025-12-25 Published:2025-12-30
  • Contact: JIANG Yuan’an E-mail:hmmyl65313@163.com;jya_69@163.com

Abstract:

Based on the high-density observation data from 19 meteorological stations (including three national-level meteorological stations and 16 regional automatic meteorological stations) in Urumqi County during the summer of 2016—2024, this study systematically analyzes the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of summer precipitation and precipitation days in Urumqi County, as well as their corresponding response relationship with altitude. Results revealed that the summer precipitation mainly occurs from June to July, with light rain contributing the most to the precipitation, followed by moderate rain and rainstorms. Although heavy rain only accounts for 7.8% of the summer precipitation days, its contribution toward the summer precipitation is as high as 36.1%, highlighting the high risk of extreme precipitation. In addition, the spatial distribution of the summer precipitation (in days) and precipitation at different levels (in days) exhibited a northeast southwest gradient increase, with high-value precipitation areas located in the mid- to high-mountain ranges, >1600 m above sea level. The precipitation in the front mountain range was relatively low, and the probability of heavy rain events was also low. Summer precipitation (number of days) and altitude had a significant positive correlation. For every 100 m increase in altitude, precipitation increased by 13.1 mm and precipitation days increased by 1.8 days. The maximum precipitation zone existed near an altitude of 2100 m. The research results can provide quantitative basis for the development of cloud water resources, ecosystem restoration, and the optimization of mountain flood warning indicators in the central northern slope of the Central Tianshan Mountains. This study deepens the understanding of the mountain-water cycle mechanism, and the findings can be used to implement water resource management strategies in arid areas of Central Asia.

Key words: precipitation, number of precipitation days, altitude, the central northern slope of the Central Tianshan Mountains