Qumarlêb County (; zh, s=曲麻莱县) is a county in the northeast of the

Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (, zh, s=玉树藏族自治州, p=Yùshù Zàngzú Zìzhìzhōu, retranscribed into Tibetan as ), also transliterated as Yüxü or Yulshul, is an autonomous prefecture of Southwestern Qinghai Province, China. ...

, south-central

Qinghai Qinghai is an inland Provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. It is the largest provinces of China, province of China (excluding autonomous regions) by area and has the third smallest population. Its capital and largest city is Xin ...

province, China.

Geography and climate

With an elevation of around , Qumarlêb County has an

alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical climate for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions of alpine cli ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''ETH''), with long, very cold winters, and short, cool and rainy summers. Average low temperatures are below freezing from mid September to late May; however, due to the wide

diurnal temperature variation In meteorology, diurnal temperature variation is the variation between a high air temperature and a low temperature that occurs during the same day. Temperature lag Temperature lag, also known as thermal inertia, is an important factor in diur ...

, average highs are only below freezing from mid/late November until early March. Despite frequent rain during summer, when a majority of days sees rain, no month has less than 50 percent of possible sunshine; with monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 51 percent in June to 78 percent in November, the county seat receives 2,782 hours of bright sunshine annually. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from in January to in July, while the annual mean is . Over three-fourths of the annual precipitation of is delivered from June to September. In recent years, affected by

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

, the rate of temperature increase has increased significantly in the past 10 years. In

August 2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw the removal of most COVID-19 ...

, the hottest month in history was recorded, with an average temperature of , and the highest temperature ever recorded was on the 9th of the month. Summer has also been affected, with a average high for August 2016, and August 2022.

Administrative divisions

Qumarlêb County is divided to 1 town and 5 townships.

Gallery

File:NI-46-3.jpg, File:NI-46-4.jpg,

References

External links

County-level divisions of Qinghai Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture {{Qinghai-geo-stub