CORRELATION BETWEEN PEAK INTENSITY OF EXTREME AFTERNOON SHORT-DURATION RAINFALL AND HUMIDITY AND SURFACE AIR TEMPERATURE IN SOUTHEAST COAST OF CHINA

Using hourly rainfall intensity, daily surface air temperature, humidity and low-level dew point depressions at55 stations in the southeast coast of China, and sea surface temperature from reanalysis in the coastal region, this paper analyzes the connection between peak intensity of extreme afternoon short-duration rainfall(EASR) and humidity as well as surface air temperature. The dependency of extreme peak intensity of EASR on temperature has a significant transition. When daily highest surface temperature is below(above) 29°C, the peak rainfall intensity shows an ascending(descending) tendency with rising temperature. Having investigated the role of moisture condition in the variation of EASR and temperature, this paper discovered that the decrease of peak rainfall intensity with temperature rising is connected with the variation of relative humidity. At higher temperatures, the land surface relative humidity decreases dramatically as temperature further increases. During this process, the sea surface temperature maintains basically unchanged, resulting in indistinct variations of water vapor content at seas. As water vapor over land is mainly contributed by the quantitative moisture transport from adjacent seas, the decline of relative humidity over land will be consequently caused by the further rise of surface air temperature.