Abstract: Based on the daily mean temperature and sunshine duration data of 824 stations in China from 1959 to 2005 and the NCEP/NCAR daily total cloud cover data, China is devided into four and six sub-regions for winter and summer mean temperature respectively with REOF method. The four sub-regions for winter are the east of Tibetan Plateau, Northeast China and eastern Inner Mongolia, most of Tibetan Plateau, and Xinjiang Province. The six sub-regions for summer are east of the Northwest and North China, the reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, southern Southwest China and South China, Northeast China and eastern Inner Mongolia, the central and north of Xinjiang, west of southern Xinjiang. Average temperature of all regions except summer region II (the reaches of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers) has an upward tendency in both winter and summer, besides, the tendency in winter is more significant. Except winter region II (Northeast China and eastern Inner Mongolia), there is a positive correlation between temperature and sunshine in all regions without consideration of the impact of total cloud, and the positive correlation of summer is more significant than that of winter. Taking no account of sunshine, the negative correlation between temperature and total cloud is significant in summer region I (east of the Northwest and most of North China) , as well as in summer region VI (west of southern Xinjiang) and winter region II (Northeast China and eastern Inner Mongolia).

Key words: regional air temperature, sunshine duration, total cloud cover, REOF method, correlation analysis