Madoi County

Madoi County
རྨ་སྟོད་རྫོང · 玛多县
Matö, Maduo
Madoi County (light red) within Golog Prefecture (yellow) and Qinghai
Madoi County (light red) within Golog Prefecture (yellow) and Qinghai
Madoi County is located in Qinghai
Madoi County
Madoi County
Location in Qinghai
Coordinates: 34°42′N98°13′E / 34.700°N 98.217°E / 34.700; 98.217
CountryChina
ProvinceQinghai
Autonomous prefectureGolog
County seatMachali
Area
 • Total
25,253 km2 (9,750 sq mi)
Population
 (2020)[1]
 • Total
14,490
 • Density0.5738/km2 (1.486/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+8 (China Standard)
Websitewww.jiuzhixian.gov.cn
Madoi County
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese玛多县
Traditional Chinese瑪多縣
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinMǎduō Xiàn
Tibetan name
Tibetanརྨ་སྟོད་རྫོང
Transcriptions
Wylierma stod rdzong
Tibetan PinyinMadoi Zong

Madoi County (Tibetan: རྨ་སྟོད་རྫོང; Chinese: 玛多县; also Matö County or Maduo County) is a county of Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in southeast-central Qinghai province, bordering Sichuan to the south. Its area is about 25,000 km2 (9,700 sq mi), and with an average elevation of 4,300 m (14,000 ft) it is the highest Chinese county by average elevation. In Madoi County is the upper stream of the Yellow River which flows to Ngoring and Gyaring lake.

Geography and Climate

With an elevation of around 4,300 m (14,000 ft), Madoi County has an alpine climate (KöppenEH), with long, bitterly cold and very dry winters, and brief, rainy, cool summers. Average low temperatures are below freezing from early September to mid June; however, due to the wide diurnal temperature variation, average highs are only below freezing from early November thru mid March. Despite frequent rain during summer, when a majority of days sees rain, no month has less than 50% of possible sunshine; with monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 53% in June to 79% in November, the county seat receives 2,838 hours of bright sunshine annually. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −15.7 °C (3.7 °F) in January to 8.0 °C (46.4 °F) in July, while the annual mean is −3.33 °C (26.0 °F), making the county seat one of the coldest locales nationwide in terms of annual mean temperature. Nearly three-fourths of the annual precipitation of 332 mm (13.1 in) is delivered from June to September.

On January 2, 1978, the lowest temperature ever recorded in Qinghai was −48.1 °C (−54.6 °F) at Madoi.

Climate data for Madoi County, elevation 4,272 m (14,016 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1971–present)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 4.2(39.6) 7.6(45.7) 11.5(52.7) 16.2(61.2) 18.7(65.7) 22.4(72.3) 24.3(75.7) 24.4(75.9) 20.2(68.4) 17.9(64.2) 6.0(42.8) 5.4(41.7) 24.4(75.9)
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) −6.7(19.9) −3.5(25.7) 0.3(32.5) 5.1(41.2) 8.7(47.7) 11.7(53.1) 14.4(57.9) 14.4(57.9) 10.8(51.4) 4.4(39.9) −1.5(29.3) −5.4(22.3) 4.4(39.9)
Daily mean °C (°F) −15.2(4.6) −11.8(10.8) −7.6(18.3) −2.2(28.0) 2.1(35.8) 5.8(42.4) 8.4(47.1) 8.0(46.4) 4.3(39.7) −2.3(27.9) −9.5(14.9) −14.2(6.4) −2.8(26.9)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −22.1(−7.8) −18.7(−1.7) −13.9(7.0) −8.3(17.1) −3.3(26.1) 0.9(33.6) 3.3(37.9) 2.9(37.2) −0.3(31.5) −6.9(19.6) −15.6(3.9) −21.1(−6.0) −8.6(16.5)
Record low °C (°F) −48.1(−54.6) −36.3(−33.3) −32.4(−26.3) −19.7(−3.5) −20.0(−4.0) −7.1(19.2) −3.7(25.3) −6.2(20.8) −11.4(11.5) −23.0(−9.4) −33.3(−27.9) −38.8(−37.8) −48.1(−54.6)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 4.2(0.17) 4.6(0.18) 8.9(0.35) 12.1(0.48) 35.1(1.38) 64.2(2.53) 77.3(3.04) 69.3(2.73) 47.8(1.88) 20.1(0.79) 4.7(0.19) 2.3(0.09) 350.6(13.81)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)6.3 7.5 9.6 9.7 15.5 17.7 18.1 15.4 16.4 12.3 5.2 4.1 137.8
Average snowy days 9.4 9.9 13.1 13.0 17.2 10.7 4.5 4.1 11.1 15.6 7.9 5.8 122.3
Average relative humidity (%) 51 47 48 47 56 64 65 64 65 60 52 48 56
Mean monthly sunshine hours229.3 213.8 248.2 261.2 252.4 216.2 237.7 237.0 215.5 241.5 238.5 236.9 2,828.2
Percentage possible sunshine73 69 66 66 58 50 54 58 59 70 78 78 65
Source: China Meteorological Administration[2][3][4]all-time extreme temperature[5]

Administrative divisions

Madoi is divided into two towns and two townships:

Name Simplified Chinese Hanyu Pinyin TibetanWylieAdministrative division code
Towns
Machali Town玛查理镇Mǎchálǐ Zhènརྨ་ཕྲ་ལི་གྲོང་བརྡལ།rma phra li grong brdal632626100
Zora Town(Huashixia) 花石峡镇Huāshíxiá Zhènམཛོ་རྭ་གྲོང་རྡལ།mdzo rwa grong rdal632626101
Townships
Maqu Township(Huanghe) 黄河乡Huánghé Xiāngརྨ་ཆུ་ཡུལ་ཚོ།rma chu yul tsho632626200
Co'gyarêng Township(Zhalinghu) 扎陵湖乡Zhālínghú Xiāngམཚོ་སྐྱ་རེངས་ཡུལ་ཚོ།mtsho skya rengs yul tsho632626201

See also

References