Abstract: Based on the data of air temperature, rainfall, and snow cover observed by meteorological stations in the pasturing area in the south of Qinghai Province from 1961 to 2005 and using the climate diagnosis method, the evolutional characteristics of climate elements and the cause of change of snow disasters are analyzed. The results indicate that the station-times for occurrences of moderate snow, heavy snow and snow disasters showed a gradually increasing tendency in the pasturing area in the south of Qinghai from the 1960s to 1990s, and the snowfall and mean surface snow cover climatologically increased by 1.253 mm/10a and 8.246 cm/10a, respectively. The snow cover of single-stations about 4100 m altitudes increased significantly. And such a change is closely related to the decadal oscillations of climate.

Key words: snow cover, snow disasters, climate change, the south of Qinghai Province