Abstract:By using hourly precipitation data in rainy season(May-October) from 20 meteorological stations in southern Jiangsu during 2008-2012, the basic characteristics and regional differences of diurnal variation of summer rainfall in southern Jiangsu were analyzed, based on precipitation frequency. Results show that a strong regional difference exists in the diurnal variation characteristics of precipitation, especially in the western, eastern and northeastern coastal stations. The maximum value of precipitation at the eastern stations basically occurs in the afternoon and evening; at the western stations, the main peak happens in the afternoon and two secondary peaks are in the early morning and evening, respectively; at the northeastern coastal stations, a double peak presents before and after midday. During 2008-2011,the annual precipitation in the high-value areas in the afternoon tends to weakening first and then is followed by an enhancing and shifting to an earlier time, while in the morning, it presents overall weakening-delaying; after 2011, a weakening trend occurs obviously. Overall, in southern Jiangsu, the peak of short-term heavy rainfall (especially magnitude more than 20 and 25 mm/h) occurs at 16-19 in the afternoon, and a relatively small peak is observed at 07-09 in the morning.