Abstract: Base on the daily precipitation data in 97 weather stations from 1962 to 2011 in Hu’nan province, the temporal and spatial characters of the heavy rainstorm were analyzed by methods of a time series analysis and a cluster analysis. The results indicate that the heavy rainstorm day is in an increasing trend with 0.73 day per decade from 1962 to 2011, and the peak value appears in 1990s. The heavy rainstorm day mainly appears in summer, especially in June and July, while it never happens in winter. For the spatial distribution, the two high frequencies regions of heavy rainstorm occur in the northwest and northeast of Hu’nan province. The heavy rainstorm could be divided into three types, i.e. a single-season type, a double-season type and a three-season type, and they are correspondingly located in the southwest, the middle, the northwest and southeast of Hu’nan province respectively.

Key words: The heavy rainstorm, Temporal and spatial distribution, a clustering analysis method, Hu’nan province