Abstract:Based on the minute precipitation observation data from Wuhan national meteorological stations since 1950s, the sliding accumulation method is used to identify short-duration heavy rainfall events, and the fuzzy identification method is used to determine the rain types of every single rainfall event. In addition, the spatio-temporal characteristics of short-duration heavy rainfall in Wuhan are systematically analyzed from the aspects of occurrence frequency, intensity and rain type, and the influence of urbanization on short-duration heavy rainfall is preliminarily explored. The results show that from 1954 to 2022, the short-duration heavy rainfall events in Wuhan show a small increasing trend, which suggests that the averaged annual frequency of heavy rainfall, annual average heavy precipitation, annual maximum 60-min heavy precipitation and annual maximum single heavy precipitation are 6.9 times, 289.9 mm, 98.0 mm and 282.2 mm, while the increasing rates are 0.3 times per 10 a, 16.7 mm per 10 a, 1.4 mm per 10 a and 0.9 mm per 10 a, respectively. Among them, the frequency and amount of annual heavy precipitation exhibit interdecadal characteristics, approximately presenting a “W” shape of “decrease-increase-decrease-increase”. The occurrence rate and contribution of heavy rainfall lasting for 60-120 min are the largest, being 41.6% and 32.2%, respectively. Heaviest rainfall in Wuhan mainly occurs from late June to mid-July, accounting for 33.6% of the whole year. The frequency of daily heavy rainfall is approximately unimodal, while the peak value occurs in 05:11 BT-05:40 BT, and the trough value occurs in 15:58 BT-16:47 BT. The average minute rainfall intensity is distributed in multi-peaks, with the main peak value appearing in 16:04 BT-17:34 BT, and the trough vlaue could be found in 07:53 BT-08:27 BT. The average minute rain intensity during daytime is greater than that at night, especially during 14:00 BT-20:00 BT. The average frequency of peaks and valleys per minute in spring is earlier than the annual average. In terms of individual rain patterns, the heavy rainfall at each station in Wuhan is dominated by the type Ⅰ and type Ⅳ rain patterns, while the heavy rainfall in 0-60 min is dominated by the type Ⅰ and type Ⅲ, and the heavy rainfall in more than 180 min is mainly type Ⅳ. The spatial variability of short-duration heavy rainfall in Wuhan area is relatively small, and the frequency, duration and precipitation of heavy rainfallin urban area are slightly higher than those in suburban area.