Trends in extreme daily temperature and rainfall have been analysed from 1961 to 1998 for Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. This 38-year period was chosen to optimize data availability across the region. Using high-quality data from 91 stations in 15 countries, significant increases were detected in the annual number of hot days and warm nights, with significant decreases in the annual number of cool days and cold nights. These trends in extreme temperatures showed considerable consistency across the region. Extreme rainfall trends were generally less spatially coherent than were those for extreme temperature. The number of rain days (with at least 2 mm of rain) has decreased significantly throughout Southeast Asia and the western and central South Pacific, but increased in the north of French Polynesia, in Fiji, and at some stations in Australia. The proportion of annual rainfall from extreme events has increased at a majority of stations. The frequency of extreme rainfall events has declined at most stations (but not significantly), although significant increases were detected in French Polynesia. Trends in the average intensity of the wettest rainfall events each year were generally weak and not significant.

The authors investigate trends in precipitation extremes using daily precipitation data from Southeast Asian countries during 1950s to 2000s. Number of wet days, defined by a day with at least 1 mm of precipitation, tends to decrease over these countries, while average precipitation intensity of wet days shows an increasing trend. Heavy precipitation indices, which are defined by precipitation amount and percentile, demonstrate that the number of stations with significant upward trend is larger than that with significant downward trend. Heavy precipitation increases in southern Vietnam, northern part of Myanmar, and the Visayas and Luzon Islands in the Philippines, while heavy precipitation decreases in northern Vietnam. Annual maximum number of consecutive dry days decreases in the region where winter monsoon precipitation dominates. Decrease of precipitation event in the dry season is suggested in Myanmar.