Abstract: To master climatic characteristic of thunderstorm weather variations in Shanxi Province can provide reference resources for meteorological forecast and industrial and agricultural production. The author carried out the study by using observation data of 71 stations in Shanxi Province from 1960 to 2010 based on statistics methods, such as liner trend, slide test and wavelet analysis. The results showed that thunderstorm days were more in the northeast and fewer in the southwest. The total thunderstorm days of 71 stations presented a declining trend from 1960 to 2010 without remarkable periodicity and mutability. The annual thunderstorm days at most stations had a declining trend, only 4 stations in the northwest of Xinzhou City had an increasing trend. Thunderstorm mainly occurred from June to August in summer, and accounted for 76% of the total number of thunderstorms in a year, while thunderstorm occurring from April to May and from September to October accounted for 24% of the total, there were very few thunderstorm days from November to March. The spatial distribution characteristics of monthly thunderstorm days were different. Monthly thunderstorm days were more in the south and fewer in the north in March, while more in the southeast and fewer in the northwest in April, more in the northeast and fewer in the southwest form May to June, more in the north and fewer in the south form July to October. The daily variation trend of thunderstorms is similar to parabola, 80% thunderstorms started in 12:00-20:00 and ended in 13:00-21:00. The ending variation curve had double peaks, one peak in 16:00-17:00, the other in 20:00-21:00. Thunderstorms lasting for less than an hour accounted for 60%, 2-6 hours for 39%, 6-19 hours for 1%, very few for more than 19 hours.
Key words: thunderstorm; variation characteristic; climate