Spatiotemporal characteristics of extreme precipitation indices and their associations with large-scale climate teleconnections in the Yellow River Basin, China

Study region The Yellow River Basin (YRB), China, is a climate-sensitive region characterized by limited water resources and high vulnerability to extreme precipitation events, which strongly influence the regional hydrological cycle and increase the risk of floods and related disasters. Study focus This study investigates the spatiotemporal characteristics of nine extreme precipitation indices (EPIs) in the YRB using the CN05.1 dataset and explores their relationships with large-scale climate circulation factors. Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) is applied to identify the scale-dependent influences of major teleconnection patterns on extreme precipitation variability. New hydrological insights for the region: CDD and CWD showed significant decreasing trends, while most other precipitation indices exhibited increasing trends, suggesting enhanced precipitation intensity and more frequent extreme precipitation events across the YRB, despite shorter dry and wet spells. Extreme precipitation variability was characterized by pronounced multiscale climatic influences, with ENSO and EASM contributing mainly at interannual timescales, and IOD-related variability and other large-scale atmospheric circulation anomalies exerting influences at longer timescales. At longer timescales, including decadal to multidecadal variability, PDO, AMO, and long-term ocean–atmosphere interactions become increasingly important. These findings improve the understanding of the multiscale climatic mechanisms governing extreme precipitation and provide a scientific basis for regional water resource management, flood risk mitigation, and climate adaptation.