Abstract: Based on the hourly precipitation data from 10 national meteorological stations in the Qinhe River basin in the middle reaches of the Yellow River during the warm season (May-September) from 2004 to 2023, the spatiotemporal variation characteristics in extreme hourly precipitation of thresholds, intensity, annual frequency, and contribution rates to total precipitation in the basin during the warm season were analyzed. The spatiotemporal variation characteristics were compared with the results from data analysis utilizing information from 96 provincial meteorological stations in the basin during 2018 to 2023 to verify the representativeness of the national meteorological station data.The results are as follows. (1) The spatial distribution characteristics of extreme hourly precipitation exceeding 20 mm·h⁻¹ threshold, including intensity, annual average frequency, and contribution to precipitation at national meteorological stations during the warm season, are lower in the middle and upper reaches than those in the lower reaches. However, the trends of change in precipitation intensity, frequency, and contribution rates are not significant. (2) The monthly variation at national meteorological stations showed a unimodal pattern, with the highest extreme hourly precipitation intensity, frequency, and contribution rate occurring in July. The diurnal variation distribution presents a bimodal pattern, with the highest frequency occurring at 09:00 BT and 13:00 BT, and the lowest frequency occurring at 01:00 BT,while rainfall intensity showed little difference between daytime and nighttime. Extreme hourly heavy precipitation exceeding 50 mm·h⁻¹ usually occurs between June and August, with the highest frequency of occurrence in July, and the most frequent occurrences at 05:00 BT and 07:00 BT. (3) The spatial distribution and the diurnal variation of extreme hourly precipitation exceeding 20 mm·h⁻¹ at provincial stations thresholds, including intensity, and contribution rates, as well as those results derived from national meteorological station data. However, the peak precipitation occurrence times of extreme hourly heavy precipitation peaks above 50 mm·h⁻¹ differed slightly. Therefore, the analysis results based on the long-term, low-density national station data are representative, and can provide reliable references for extreme hourly precipitation forecasting and warning, basin climate analysis, climate feasibility studies, and other related work in the Qinhe River basin.