Assessing Changes in Rainstorms in Beijing During the Last 50 Years

With global warming, rainstorms and other extreme weather events are occurring frequently, leading to urban waterlogging disasters. A study on spatiotemporal variation characteristics of rainstorms in urban areas can provide scientific support for the design of urban drainage facilities to mitigate the damage of urban flooding disasters. Drawing on daily rainfall data from 20 meteorological stations during 1960-2010, this study analyzed change trends for annual rainstorms in Beijing, using the Mann-Kendall approach and cumulative departure curve as methodology. The results show that annual days of rainstorms in Beijing decreased non-significantly, but the precipitation of rainstorms and annual maximum daily precipitation declined significantly. The frequency of rainstorms generally decreased from southeast to northwest, with the greatest decrease occurring in the southeast plain areas. The results of this study contribute to the understanding of rainstorm risk in Beijing.