To investigate the characteristics of rainstorm clouds to local precipitation

we analyzed 19 typical cases of rainstorm process in the Eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau from four hours before precipitation to two hours after based on the cloud-top t emperature data of FY-2 infrared channels. Two patterns were found

and the first was the trend of temperature at the 7 × 7 pixels region centered at automatic meteorological stations

and the second was the analysis of convection parameters through identification and tracking convective clouds. In addition

the characteristics of radar echo of rainstorm clouds were also analyzed. In this p aper

the maximum temperature gradient on cloud top is represented as Gmax

the maximum amplitude of Gmaxwithin the half-hour is expressed in ΔGmax

and the minimum temperature on cloud top is denoted by Tmin. We found that the variation trend of cloud-top temperature and temperature gradient at infrared channels were consistent

and the cloud-top temperature showed a decrease before increase while the temperature gradient was the opposite in precipitation stage. One or two peaks of Gmaxand ΔGmaxhappened about0 to 11 hours earlier than the heavy precipitation. The multiple regression equation for forecasting precipitation grade was constructed by Tminand Gmax. It showed that the model can well simulate the tendency of hourly precipitation and can also predict heavy rain

and the error of hourly precipitation is within one grade of precipitation. The R2of regression improved from 0. 23 to 0. 54

and the precipitation peak can be better modeled after considering the contribution of Gmaxpeak. The new algorithm of clouds identification and tracking is more simple and effective than other methods. All rainstorm cloud clusters over eastern Plateau are at mid-β to mid-α scale

and their height of water vapor columns are deep but the intensity are weaker than that of the lower altitudes. The p recipitation will happen within several hours when the minimum distance between the position of clouds extremum and the meteorological station is less than 15 pixels. The rainstorm clouds have the characteristics of heavy precipitation super cell storm in r adar echo

and the extremes of Tminand Gmaxcorrespond with the extremes of vertical integrated liquid water content

echo-top height and its gradient. These results are important for identification and tracking strong convective cloud clusters and short-time precipitation forecasting in eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.