Abstract:
A systematic analysis of hourly rainfall data from 2017 to 2024, collected from national and dense automatic weather stations in Northeast China, was conducted to reveal spatiotemporal patterns of warm-season (May–September) nocturnal precipitation across annual, monthly, diurnal, and hourly scales. Results show that daytime and nocturnal precipitation totals during the warm season are nearly equivalent. The annual mean nocturnal precipitation peaks near the Changbai Mountains, with secondary maxima in central Jilin. Short-time heavy rainfall (≥20 mm h
−1) occurs most frequently near Dandong City in southern Liaoning. Monthly nocturnal precipitation amount and frequency follow a unimodal distribution, peaking in August. High-risk regions include the Shenyang–Changchun–Harbin urban belt (high frequency) and the Liaodong Bay coast (extreme intensity). July represents a secondary peak, characterized by dual precipitation belts: the Changbai Mountains (high frequency) and the Huludao–Tieling–Jilin City corridor (high intensity). Peak short-time heavy rainfall frequencies are observed mainly in July, except in the Liaodong Peninsula, where August dominates. A nocturnal maximum in short-time heavy rainfall occurs at 0500 LST. Higher frequencies are concentrated in central Jilin and the northern Northeast Plain from 2000 LST to 2400 LST, shifting to southern Liaoning coastal areas from 0000 LST to 0800 LST. The 99.9th percentile threshold exceeds 50 mm h
−1 (extreme rainfall) at nearly 10% of stations, while more than 50% of stations reach ≥20 mm h
−1 (99.5th percentile). As intensity thresholds rise, extreme rainfall cores expand northward from the southern coastal area of Liaoning.