Precipitation trend analysis in China in the last half century

The unprecedented global warming is causing many environmental problems. Due to the differences of warming extents in various regions, precipitation is bound to be affected by the asynchronous warming. The trend of summer precipitation variation se- ries of 160 stations are analyzed to find general trend of precipitation change under global warming in 1951—2002. Results showed that there is a significant regional precipitation variation difference. By analysis, we found out that the precipitation has a latitudinal effect, that the precipitation generally kept a decline trend in the area north to 31°N, but a increase trend to the south of 31°N. the precipitation in the area north of 40°N is more stable in variation than in the lower areas. Regionally, the precipitation in Northwest China and Southeast China kept obvious increasing trends. The precipitation variation in the summer monsoon influenced areas is controlled by the variety of the summer monsoon and that in the non-summer-monsoon influenced area results from the variation of the westerly.