Abstract: West Qinling Mountains is located to the east edge of the Tibetan Plateau and in the monsoon fringe area, its climate is affected by the thermal effects of Tibetan Plateau and is very sensitive to the monsoon variability. However, the spatial and temporal characteristics of precipitation in West Qinling over the past 60 years are still unclear. Based on the instrumental monthly precipitation and temperature in 1951-2014 of 15 meteorological stations in West Qinling Mountains and the surrounding areas, the temporal and spatial characteristics of wet and dry spells over the past 60 years are analyzed using the relevant statistical analysis, the non-parametric tests and the improved empirical orthogonal function method. The results show that the precipitation has a downward trend in the West Qinling Mountains and the surrounding areas since 1951. The autumn precipitation the most significant downward trend than that of the other seasons, with -18.6 mm· (10 a)^-1. Moreover, the temperature has an upward trend with 0.28℃· (10 a)^-1 over the last 60 years. The temperature incre-ased 1℃, while the precipitation decreased 37 mm at the study area. Compared with the Niño3.4 index, the study area has less precipitation and high temperature, and tends to drought at the EI Niño year. Through the empirical orthogonal function analysis(EOF), the variance of the precipitation is explained by the EOF1 with 49.0%, and the EOF1 of the temperature explained 78.8% total variance. Two patterns all display consistency changes in whole West Qinling regions, and the eastern West Qinling have larger precipitation decreased rate and smaller temperature increased rate than that of the western. These results fill the gaps in the regional precipitation research in West Qinling and provide a reference for understanding the climate change in the monsoon marginal areas.

Key words: West Qinling, Precipitation, Dry wet spells, Spatial pattern