Abstract:Based on 18 durations of annual maximum rainfall series of 34 national stations in Chongqing from 1981 to 2016, the L-moments are used to estimate the parameters of six common probability distributions. The optimal line, ensured objectively by alternative optimal model method, is applied to calculate the 100-year return period extreme precipitation with different durations. The result is as follows: There exist different optimal distributions for different duration of extreme rainfall in each station. The ratio of the largest to the smallest proportion is the Generalized of Extreme Value distribution (GEV), three-parameter Weibull distribution (Weibull3), three-parameter lognormal distribution (LN3), Gumbel distribution and Pearson type Ⅲ distribution (P-Ⅲ). As time goes on, the relatively large precipitation area that calculated by the best model has changed from a point-like distribution with a short duration to a sheet-like distribution with a long duration. Under the influence of topography, the large center in northeast Chongqing is constantly moving northwards. It's operable and adaptable for reckoning on some other engineering meteorological parameters by selecting one or more optimal probability distribution model, whose parameters is estimated by L-moments, through the objective selection process.