Based on hourly precipitation data at 144 regional automatic stations and national stations in Lanzhou of Gansu Province from April to September during 2010-2018 and geographic information data, the temporal and spatial distributions of short-term strong rainfall were analyzed in detail, and the relationship between frequency of short-term strong rainfall and geographic elements was discussed quantitatively. The results show that the threshold of short-term strong rainfall in Lanzhou was 10 mm·h-1, and the short-term strong rainfall events concentrated from late July to August, its frequency was the highest from 21:00 BST to 22:00 BST. The frequency of short-term strong rainfall had obvious spatial difference in Lanzhou, and it was more in the south and less in the north as a whole. Although the frequency of short-term strong rainfall varied significantly at different stations in Lanzhou, it wasn’t obvious dispersion and fitted the normal distribution. The frequency distribution of short-term strong rainfall was closely related with altitude, windward side and slope, so the high frequency area mostly distributed in the bell-mouth of valley, the windward slope, the urban heat island area and alpine mountainous area in Lanzhou.