Abstract:

A rarely seen heavy torrential rain lasting 17 d leading to disastrous floods happened in the Huang-Huai region of eastern China in 1730 summer. The serious meteorological disasters and extreme climatic events happened under a climatic background of a warm phase of the Little Ice Age. In this paper, the synoptic process of rainstorm, flooding situation and the weather characters of 1730 are reproduced by means of historical literature records, and the state charts of areas of heavy rain, overflow, and daily moving of heavy rainy area in this summer are made. The synoptic and climatic aspects of 1730 were extremely similar to those of the “75?8 heavy rain” in Henan province in 1975, both typical severest torrential rainy events associated with typhoon activity and coincidently toke place in the minimum-value phase of the solar activity period, associated with moderate-large volcanic activity and 2 years after ending the strong El Nino event.

Key words: extreme climatic event, heavy rain and floods, climatic disaster, historical climate, AD 1730