# Qumarlêb County

Qumarlêb County (Tibetan: ཆུ་དམར་ལེབ་རྫོང་།; Chinese: 曲麻莱县) is a county in the northeast of the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, south-central Qinghai province, China.

## Geography and climate

With an elevation of around 4,200 metres (14,000 ft), Qumarlêb County has an alpine climate (Köppen 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, 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 −14.5 °C (5.9 °F) in January to 8.9 °C (48.0 °F) in July, while the annual mean is −2.13 °C (28.2 °F). Over three-fourths of the annual precipitation of 406 mm (16.0 in) is delivered from June to September.
In recent years, affected by global warming, the rate of temperature increase has increased significantly in the past 10 years. In August 2022, the hottest month in history was recorded, with an average temperature of 13.9 °C (57.0 °F), and the highest temperature ever recorded was 25.6 °C (78.1 °F) on the 9th of the month. Summer has also been affected, with a 21.1 °C (70.0 °F) average high for August 2016, and August 2022.
Climate data for Qumarlêb, elevation 4,175 m (13,698 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1971–2010) :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 10.3 (50.5) | 9.9 (49.8) | 13.7 (56.7) | 16.8 (62.2) | 21.6 (70.9) | 24.1 (75.4) | 24.9 (76.8) | 25.6 (78.1) | 20.8 (69.4) | 19.0 (66.2) | 11.0 (51.8) | 8.9 (48.0) | 25.6 (78.1) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −3.8 (25.2) | −1.0 (30.2) | 2.7 (36.9) | 7.1 (44.8) | 10.7 (51.3) | 13.7 (56.7) | 16.4 (61.5) | 16.3 (61.3) | 12.8 (55.0) | 6.9 (44.4) | 1.3 (34.3) | −2.2 (28.0) | 6.7 (44.1) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −12.8 (9.0) | −9.5 (14.9) | −5.4 (22.3) | −0.7 (30.7) | 3.5 (38.3) | 7.2 (45.0) | 9.7 (49.5) | 9.3 (48.7) | 5.7 (42.3) | −0.9 (30.4) | −7.8 (18.0) | −12.1 (10.2) | −1.2 (29.9) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −20.8 (−5.4) | −17.6 (0.3) | −13.0 (8.6) | −7.9 (17.8) | −2.9 (26.8) | 1.8 (35.2) | 4.0 (39.2) | 3.4 (38.1) | 0.6 (33.1) | −6.5 (20.3) | −14.8 (5.4) | −20.0 (−4.0) | −7.8 (18.0) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −34.2 (−29.6) | −31.2 (−24.2) | −27.1 (−16.8) | −19.9 (−3.8) | −14.9 (5.2) | −6.4 (20.5) | −4.3 (24.3) | −9.5 (14.9) | −10.2 (13.6) | −24.0 (−11.2) | −28.4 (−19.1) | −34.4 (−29.9) | −34.4 (−29.9) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 4.4 (0.17) | 3.2 (0.13) | 7.8 (0.31) | 14.8 (0.58) | 39.4 (1.55) | 85.8 (3.38) | 96.6 (3.80) | 79.0 (3.11) | 71.3 (2.81) | 20.5 (0.81) | 3.6 (0.14) | 1.7 (0.07) | 428.1 (16.86) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 4.7 | 5.4 | 7.9 | 10.3 | 17.3 | 21.6 | 19.4 | 17.8 | 19.8 | 11.5 | 3.5 | 2.9 | 142.1 |
| Average snowy days | 6.8 | 7.5 | 11.2 | 13.5 | 19.2 | 7.3 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 7.9 | 13.6 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 100.4 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 43 | 39 | 42 | 47 | 57 | 66 | 66 | 66 | 70 | 61 | 49 | 42 | 54 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 205.4 | 190.9 | 219.9 | 234.9 | 232.6 | 203.3 | 232.7 | 225.1 | 206.0 | 233.7 | 230.8 | 224.1 | 2,639.4 |
| Percent possible sunshine | 65 | 61 | 59 | 60 | 54 | 47 | 53 | 55 | 56 | 68 | 75 | 73 | 61 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration ||||||||||||||

## Administrative divisions

Qumarlêb County is divided to 1 town and 5 townships.
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Tibetan | Wylie | Administrative division code |
| Town ||||||
| Yugê Town (Yuegai) | 约改镇 | Yuēgǎi Zhèn | གཡུ་སྐེ་གྲོང་བརྡལ། | g.yu ske grong brdal | 632726100 |
| Townships ||||||
| Bagoin Township (Bagan) | 巴干乡 | Bāgàn Xiāng | འབའ་དགོན་ཞང་། | 'ba' dgon zhang | 632726200 |
| Qigzhi Township (Qiuzhi) | 秋智乡 | Qiūzhì Xiāng | ཆིག་སྒྲིལ་ཞང་། | chig sgril zhang | 632726201 |
| Yugê Township (Yege) | 叶格乡 | Yègé Xiāng | གཡུ་སྐེ་ཞང་། | g.yu ske zhang | 632726202 |
| Madoi Township (Maduo) | 麻多乡 | Máduō Xiāng | རྨ་སྟོད་ཞང་། | rma stod zhang | 632726203 |
| Qumar Township (Qumahe) | 曲麻河乡 | Qǔmáhé Xiāng | ཆུ་དམར་ཞང་། | chu dmar zhang | 632726204 |