Characteristics of Meiyu during 1867—1872 in Wuhan and Changsha areas recorded in Wang Wenshao Diary
Man Zhimin Li Zhuolun Yang Yuda
1 Center for Historical Geography Studies of Fudan University， Shanghai200433
2 School of Resources and Environment， Lanzhou University， Lanzhou730000，Gansu
Based on the climate records of Wuhan and Changsha areas from Wang Wenshao Diary of Qing dynasty， the paper reconstructs the summer precipitation time series of the eastern areas in Hubei and Hunan provinces from 1867 to 1872. At the same time， the starting and finishing time of the Meiyu seasons are defined and accordingly the types of Meiyu in these years are classified. Compared with the historical documents， such as local chronicles， it is concluded that the years 1867 and 1872 were typical years of Meiyu， and the precipitation was relatively moderate； though the year 1868 was considered as a vacant year of Meiyu， the precipitation was moderate even abundant perhaps for the untypical Meiyu； the rich year of Meiyu was 1869， in which the precipitation was abnormally abundant. And in the year 1870， Meiyu came earlier compared with the average level， the precipitation was also moderate； when the length of the Meiyu seasons was shorter， such as 1871， it was a year of drought. It can be easily found that the diary of weather can be used as a proper tool to reconstruct some long weather progress such as Meiyu in a certain period in the history. The yearly change and the differences among regions of Meiyu can be accurately analyzed if we take a close and systematic look at the diary of weather. At the same time， we can overcome the limitation of the length of the time series by referring to the continuous weather records of other Meiyu regions and comparing the records of the summer rain of different regions and periods.
