Abstract: Based on the winter half year (from November to the April of next year) minimum temperature data at 160 stations in China during 1955-2005, by using Mann-Kendall statistic test the abrupt changes in the minimum temperature were analyzed. The probability distributions of the minimum temperature series for the colder period (1955/1956-1988/1989) and warmer period (1989/1990-2004/2005) were given and the spatial differences of the minimum temperature between the two climatic periods were also compared. The results show that: 1) the significant rising of minimum temperature occurred in the end of the 1980s, and the rising amplitude was larger than that of mean temperature; 2) after the warming the probability of lower minimum temperature has apparently reduced and that of higher minimum temperature increased; 3) statistically, the rising trends of the minimum temperature were all significant over most regions in China except those in Southwest China.

Key words: winter half year, minimum temperature, probability distribution, warming trend, China