Major heavy rain events in China from April to October in 2016

Based on the daily precipitation data from over 2 400 weather stations and the conventional sounding data in mainland China, we have not only made the statistics of the major heavy rain events occurred in China from April to October in 2016, but also conducted a survey of the precipitation distribution and the weather conditions for these events. Results indicate that during this period, 204 heavy rain days and 41 major heavy rain events occurred in China, of which the heavy rains days is recorded as the most during the same period of the latest 9 years. The monthly cumulative precipitation is more than climatology by 50 percent in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River from April to October except for August, of which is more than 2 times in July. The center of monthly cumulative precipitation is located at Jiang Xia station in Hubei, which is more than climatology by nearly 6 times. During June 30 to July 6 in 2016, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River underwent a wide range of severe precipitation events, in which the cumulative precipitation is over 700 mm in local area. In 2016, there are 8 typhoons made landfall in China, of which the super typhoon (1614) Meranti caused the largest daily precipitation (538.3 mm) and the largest cumulative precipitation (857.8 mm) in Lingao, Hainan. Both statistics are the largest in China in the current year.