Brief communication: Sharp precipitation gradient on the southern edge of the Tibetan Plateau during cold season

Abstract

The Tibetan Plateau is a high-altitude arid region, where limited in-situ precipitation measurements are available. In this communication, we document a strong precipitation gradient at the southern edge of the Paiku Co catchment (southern Tibetan Plateau) from in-situ data and atmospheric model outputs. In particular, we use water pressure time series from proglacial lakes, two automatic weather stations, and data from ERA5-Land reanalysis and CORDEX-FPS-CPTP ensemble. We show that precipitation totals can vary by one order of magnitude over a short distance of 10 km in a rather smooth terrain during the cold season. This large precipitation gradient marks the transition between the great Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau.