Spatiotemporal Variations and Climatological Trends in Precipitation Indices in Shaanxi Province, China

Abstract

Precipitation, as an important part of the hydrological cycle, is often related to flood and drought. In this study, we collected daily rainfall data from 21 rainfall stations in Shaanxi Province from 1961 to 2017, and calculated eight extreme climate indices. Annual and seasonal concentration indices (CI) were also calculated. The trends in the changes in precipitation were calculated using the M–K test and Sen’s slope. The results show that the precipitation correlation index and CI (concentration index) in Shaanxi Province are higher in the south and lower in the north. For the annual scale, the CI value ranges from 0.6369 to 0.6820, indicating that Shaanxi Province has a high precipitation concentration and an uneven distribution of annual precipitation. The eight extreme precipitation indices of most rainfall stations showed a downward trend during the study period, and more than half of the stations passed the 0.05 confidence interval test. Among them, the Z value of PRCPTOT (annual total precipitation in wet days) at Huashan station reached −6.5270. The lowest slope of PRCPTOT reached −14.3395. This shows that annual rainfall in Shaanxi Province has been decreasing in recent decades. These findings could be used to make decisions about water resources and drought risk management in Shaanxi Province, China.