The eastern periphery of the Tibetan Plateau (EPTP), which connects the Tibetan Plateau in the west and the Sichuan Basin in the east, is a typical area with steep terrain. The performance of the ERA5 reanalysis data in revealing the regional rainfall events (RREs) over the EPTP was evaluated by conducting a comparison with the rain‐gauge data. The results showed that the ERA5 precipitation could capture the general spatiotemporal features of the evolution of the observed RREs with spatial correlation coefficients greater than 0.8, but obvious bias still existed. The rainfall frequency was generally greater and the rainfall intensity was weaker in the ERA5 precipitation from the Tibetan Plateau to the Sichuan Basin, with the rainfall amount being smaller over the EPTP and Sichuan Basin and larger over the eastern Tibetan Plateau. ERA5 precipitation tended to start earlier and end later relative to the RREs in the gauge data. During the RREs, the distribution of the precipitation intensity in ERA5 was weaker and more uniform than that of the gauge records, and the spatial ranges were larger, which responded well to the higher rainfall frequency but weaker intensity in ERA5 when compared with the gauge data. These findings remind us that attention should be paid when using reanalysis precipitation, especially over complex terrain such as that of the EPTP. Moreover, the incorrect timing of the ERA5 precipitation and the underestimation of the precipitation intensity indicated that problems still exist in the state‐of‐the‐art model system.

The diurnal variation of the rainfall amount, frequency and intensity, and the rainfall with different durations, as well as their seasonality, were analysed by using the hourly rainfall data at 90 stations in the UK during 1998–2015. The rainfall amount averaged in the entire UK presented two comparable peaks in the early morning and the late afternoon, which contributed by the frequency (the early morning) and the intensity (the late afternoon), separately. The rainfall peaks were closely related with the location and the duration of the rainfall. For the rainfall amount, the early morning peaks were more prevailing in the rainfall events lasting more than 6 hr and at the stations along the western coast of the British Isles; however, the rainfall events lasting 1–6 hr usually reached the hourly maximum in the late afternoon. For the seasonal variability, more nocturnal rainfall peaks of rainfall amount and intensity were found over the southern plains in winter. In spring to autumn, only the rainfall at some coastal stations or the stations on islands got the maximum during midnight to the early morning. For the rainfall frequency, the regional differences were more apparent in spring and summer, and the hourly rainfall frequency in the UK mainly peaked around 0600 GMT (Greenwich mean time) in autumn and in 1100–1300 GMT in winter. The results enriched the knowledge of the hourly rainfall features over the UK.

Accurate simulation and prediction of intense precipitation events require better understanding of their physical mechanisms. This study uses Yaan—a place with regional maximum rainfall in central China—to investigate the cause and process of intense precipitation. Hourly rain gauge records and the new ERA5 reanalysis are used to characterize the evolution process of warm season intense regional rainfall events (RREs) in Yaan and its associated three-dimensional circulation. Results show that before the start of the Yaan intense RREs, moderate rainfall amount (frequency) appears northeast of the key region. The rainfall then moves southward in the following several hours along the eastern periphery of the Tibetan Plateau where it reaches peak. It then moves to and end up in the south and southeast Sichuan Basin. The progression of the RREs is found to be associated with a counter-clockwise rotation of anomalous surface winds associated with a developing mesoscale surface low-pressure center, which is further associated with the southeastward progression of a large-scale synoptic scale wave. The easterly phase of the winds in the counter-clockwise rotation causes upslope motion perpendicularly toward the terrain that leads to maximum rainfall. The findings illustrate how large-scale circulations, mesoscale systems, and specific topographic features interact to create the RREs evolution in Yaan.