Declining frequency of summertime local‐scale precipitation over eastern China from 1970 to 2010 and its potential link to aerosols

Summer precipitation plays critical roles in the energy balance and the availability of fresh water over eastern China. However, little is known regarding the trend in local-scale precipitation (LSP). Here, we developed a novel method to determine LSP events in the summer afternoon throughout eastern China from 1970 to 2010 based on hourly gauge measurements. The LSP occurrence hours decrease at an annual rate of 0.25%, which varies considerably by region, ranging from 0.14% over the Yangtze River Delta to 0.56% over the Pearl River Delta. This declining frequency of LSP is generally accompanied by an increase in rain rate of LSP but a decrease in visibility, whose linkage to LSP events was investigated. In particular, more LSP events tended to form when the atmosphere was slightly polluted. Afterwards, LSP was suppressed. These findings have important implications for improving our understanding of the climatology of daytime precipitation at local scales.

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