Abstract: Based on historical records of precipitation, temperature, sunshine duration and wind speed at 5 stations including Chongqing, Fuling, Wanzhou, Fengjie and Yichang, the changes in these climate elements in summer over the Three Gorges area during 1951-2006 were analyzed. Results show that the regional average of summer precipitation had an overall increasing trend and a jump change occurred in the end of the 1970s. Meanwhile, maximum temperature, mean temperature, sunshine duration and water surface evaporation had a declining trend and a jump change happened in the early 1980s. At the same time, minimum temperature and wind speed did not have an obvious trend. All of these variables showed obvious decadal variations.

Key words: Three Gorges area, precipitation, temperature, sunshine duration, wind speed, evaporation, climate change