Abstract: The analyses of high wind days in Yingkou Prefecture from 1971 to 2000 indicate that days of wind speed above 6 and 8 categories in one year reduced successively from spring, winter, autumn to summer. Annual days of wind speed above 6 and 8 categories in the recent 30 years (1971-2000) reduced at a linear change rate of 27.4 d /10a and 6.7 d /10a, but in the recent 20 years (1981-2000), the annual high wind days reduced at a linear trend of 13.1 d/10a and 6.1 d/10a, respectively, suggesting that the reducing trends of high wind days in the recent 30 years are more significant than those in the recent 20 years; and the reducing trends in spring and early summer (March to June) are more remarkable than those in autumn and winter. The weakening of local general circulation associated with the reduction in diurnal range might be one of the reasons for the decline in high wind days in Yingkou Prefecture.

Key words: high wind days, change rate, Yingkou Prefecture