Abstract: Climate change results in frequent local meteorological disasters, and in particular, snowfall events cause severe damage to transportation, electricity, and agriculture. On the basis of data of 118 conventional meteorological stations in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River from 1961 to 2017, the characteristics of winter snowfall in the study area are examined by using climate tendency, cumulative anomaly, non-parametric M-K trend analysis and REOF (Rotated Empirical Orthogonal Function). Results unveil that snowfall in most areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River indicates a decreasing trend with age. The number of snowfall days in winter changed abruptly in 1981 from increasing trend to declining trend. The results of REOF suggest that the snowfall and snowfall change are mainly concentrated in the northwest area of the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River. The research findings offer technical support for preventing snowfall disasters.

Key words: climate tendency;trend analysis;mutation test;REOF decomposition;middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River