Abstract: The temporal and spatial distributions of precipitation in Qingdao City are analyzed under the climate background and the urbanization process and based on the annual, monthly, daily and hourly precipitation data observed at 7 national basic meteorological stations in Qingdao from 1981 to 2017. The results show that from 1981 to 2017 the average annual precipitation days in Qingdao were 75 days and the average annual precipitation was 654.0 mm, which had a tendency of increasing from 1981 to 2010 and a tendency of decreasing from 2011 to 2017. The annual precipitation had a larger increasing trend at Qingdao Station and Jiaonan Station in the southern coastal area and a relatively small trend at Jimo Station and Jiaozhou Station in the central and northern area. The annual precipitation at Qingdao, Laoshan, Jiaozhou and Jiaonan stations had an increasing trend in the 1980s, the 1990s, the 2000s and the 2010s, whereas at Pingdu Station and Laixi Station located in the north region showed a decreasing trend in the 1990s, the 2000s and the 2010s. Diurnal variation of hourly precipitation frequency at the stations in typical precipitation year had obvious characteristics: the precipitation occurred the most from the wee hours to the morning with the probability of occurrence being 2.6% to 6.7%, and from the afternoon to the first half of the night the precipitation reduced significantly. The hourly precipitation over 20 mm • h^-1 occurred the most at Jiaonan Station, being up to 7 times. In July of typical precipitation years the 500 hPa shows a circulation pattern of "two troughs and two ridges" or "two troughs and one ridge" and the upper troughs are stronger than the usual. The main body of the Western Pacific subtropical high lies over the Western Pacific Ocean at 15°— 35°N, East of 120°E, with its ridge line being near 25°N. The Qingdao area is located in the northwest side of the Northwest Pacific subtropical high so that it is prone to precipitation.