Qumarlêb County 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 4200 m, 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 in January to 8.9 °C in July, while the annual mean is −2.13 °C. Over three-fourths of the annual precipitation of 406 mm 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, and the highest temperature ever recorded was 25.6 °C on the 9th of the month. Summer has also been affected, with a 21.1 °C average high for August 2016, and August 2022.

Administrative divisions

Qumarlêb County is divided to 1 town and 5 townships.

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