Abstract: Strong rainfall in spring has very important significance for spring sowing arrangements, sandstorm and drought harm alleviation, air quality and ecological environment improvement and crop growth in arid areas. The strong precipitation processes with daily precipitation≥5 mm in spring in Minqin from 2001 to 2015 were studied based on the meteorological data of the ground, upper air and cloud, as well as NCEP reanalysis data. The number of strong rainfall days in spring and total precipitation showed increasing trends during 1953-2015 in Minqin, and the characteristics of processes were long precipitation time, high concentration in the morning and mostly continuous precipitation. The strong rainfall processes were caused by cold air moved eastward south from Xinjiang to the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, combined with low-pressure systems over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and deep moist layers, plateau clouds that developed northward. The occurrence of strong precipitation in spring is closely related to the Eurasian zonal flow, the intensities of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau low trough and the East Asian trough. The weather forecast focus are cold air come from northwest of China, weather systems and clouds over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, southerly water vapor transportation.

Key words: strong precipitation, dry and wet contrast, Minqin