Interannual Variability of Extreme Precipitation during the Boreal Summer over Northwest China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In the present study, authors scrutinized the characteristics and mechanisms of interannual variability of extreme summer precipitation in northwest China based on different precipitation products. The authors identified the interannual increase in extreme precipitation in NWC is strongly correlated with the South Asian high, Western Pacific Subtropical high, the enhanced westerly jet, and the mid- to high-latitude Rossby wave trains. Besides this, authors also explored the possible physical mechanisms associated with the Rossby wave trains and reported that the sea surface temperature-anomalies in the western Pacific in May-June-July plays a crucial role in its formation and sustenance. The manuscript is well organized and written exceptionally well, but a minor revision is needed before it is accepted. Below are comments and suggestions that may help the authors to improve the study.

 

Major comments:

1.     The authors have mentioned that anomalous SST in the North Atlantic and the Indian Ocean could have an impact on extreme precipitation in NWC (Line 76-77 and Line 298-301). Some key studies related to these physical mechanisms and detailed explanations are missing.

 

2.     The authors have discussed that the weakened South Asian high may contribute to the increase in extreme precipitation in NWC. Once notable limitation that I noticed in the analysis, is regarding the physical mechanism of how SAH influences the extreme precipitation.

 

Minor comments:

1.     Line 57: “has” should be “have” and “pf” should be “of”.

2.     Line 74: “promotes” should be “promote”.

3.     Line 82: “subtropical” should be “Subtropical”.

4.     Figure 5a, b: What does the line mean? .

5.     Line 225: they appeared to be overestimates should be “they appeared to be overestimated”.

6.     Line 307: (SSTI: 2–22°N, 117–135°W) should be (SSTI: 2–22°N, 117–135°E).

7.     Line 362: “are” should be “were”.

8.     Line 380: are mostly barotropic, with the exception of those west of NWC, What does the line mean? .

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

GENERAL REMARKS

The manuscript is a study of precipitation trends in changing climate. The authors find atmospheric circulation changes explaining the observed precipitation trends.  

As the much of the area is not having much precipitation, the "extreme precipitation" used in connection to this sounds a bit funny, even though this may be  common statistical quantity in climatological studies.

I did not find explanations of some acronyms that were used in the text.

COMMENTS ON DETAILS

A. ABSTRACT

a. The acronyms "R95TOT" and "Rx1day" need some kind of explanation as the abstract should be understood without reading the details in the article.

1. INTRODUCTION

a. "Extreme precipitation" when talking about arid region sounds a bit strange, though this may be common in climatological studies. "Precipitation extreme" may be more close to the actual meaning?

2. MATERIAL AND METHODS

a. Line 124. I have seen this in other manuscripts, and may be common in weather service notes of their data, but Global Telecommunication System to me does not mean that it would be meteorological data. This is not a remote sensing method based on telecommunication links. The system was originally, I suppose, transmitting messages for aeronautical purposes, weather messages of course being very common. There may be other more precise classes of weather reports used in the data centres, these would then specify the actual observation sources.

3. RESULTS

a. The acronyms "R95tot" and "Rx1day" are not explained any better in the main text, although one can guess the meaning of these better than in the abstract. Some description of these parametres is needed.

b. Lines 210-212. Comment on TRMM problem related to terrain makes me wonder should this be included in the "Materials and methods" section already, as this seems to be a well-known feature that should be taken into account in the design of any comparison experiments.

c. There are "SAH" "EU", and "WPSH" that I did not find any explanation, though I can make a guess of their meaning.

d. In figure 6b time series, the text says detrended and original, but why the detrended seems to have almost equal trend?

e. I wondered some time "MJJ" and "JJA". If M is for Malaysia and J for Japan, then what is the other J for. Then I figured out that "May-June-July" and "June-July-August" are the sources. But if this is the case, the periods are mostly overlapping, why?

4. DISCUSSION

a. "WPSH" and "SAH" are what? Anyway these could be written without any acronyms used.

5. CONCLUSIONS

a. "R95TOT" and "Rx1day" are what?

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx