Abstract: Using daily and hourly station rain gauge data during 1967-2006, the changes in the characteristics of the later-summer (July-August) rainfall intensity over southeast coastal China were analyzed. The results depending on the daily rainfall data confirm that the amount of precipitation in southeastern China has significantly increased, which mainly results from the significant increase of daily precipitation intensity while the frequency does not increase significantly. Based on the hourly rainfall data, it is found the hourly intensity of precipitation and duration time are significantly increased simultaneously in this region. Comparing the average precipitation indices during 1967-1986 with that during 1987-2006. It is found the intensity of short duration (≤4 h) precipitation increases while that of long duration (≥15 h) precipitation decreases and the frequency of long duration precipitation increases. Even so, the average intensity of long duration precipitation is much higher than that of short duration precipitation. In short, the significant increase of the hourly precipitation intensity is resulted from the frequency increase of long duration- and short duration-heavy precipitation and the frequency decrease of short duration-slight precipitation in the past 40 years over the southeastern coast of China.

Key words: southeastern coast of China, precipitation intensity, duration time, later-summer