In order to systematically study the characteristics of thunderstorm gust fronts in Hubei, Doppler radar data and automatic weather station data from 2016 to 2021 in Hubei Province are used to make a comprehensive statistical analysis. The results are as follows: (1) Gust fronts mainly occurred from June to August in Hubei Province, accounting for 96% of the total, and in August it was the most. The gust front mainly occurred during 15:00-18:00 in a day with the peak value at 17:00, and most gust fronts lasted for 1.5-3.0 h. Among the mother thunderstorms that generated gust fronts, 35% were multi-cell thunderstorms, 40% were multi-cell thunderstorm groups, and 25% were squall lines. (2) There were five main generation areas of gust fronts, including the area outside the province, the northeast Hubei, the Jianghan Plain, Xiangyang in the northwest Hubei and Yichang in the southwest Hubei, and the moving direction of gust fronts generated in the same area had good regularity. The gust fronts in the northeast Hubei was the most, accounting for 33% of the total. (3) Not all mother thunderstorms and their gust fronts can cause surface gales. The maximum ground wind speed generated by 69% mother thunderstorms and 9% gust front was equal to or greater than 17.0 m·s^-1. In multi-cell thunderstorm and multi-cell thunderstorm groups, the stronger the echo intensity of the mother thunderstorm, the greater the probability of surface gale generated by the mother thunderstorm and its gust front, and the intensity of surface wind speed generated by the gust front had little relationship with the echo intensity and spatial scale. (4) Gust fronts had strong convective triggering ability, and 91% of gust fronts can trigger convective cells behind, near and in front of them. The feedback effect of the thunderstorm and its gust front is different, and the relative position of the convection trigger and the gust front is different. The positive feedback type mostly triggered convection behind the gust front. The negative feedback type can trigger convection behind, near and in front of the gust front, the intensity of 29% of convective cells was equal to or greater than 55 dBZ. The 35% of the gust fronts merged with the surrounding thunderstorms to form a combined gust front, which occurred most in the northeast Hubei.

In view of three rainstorm processes (“6·19”,“7·5” and “7·19” processes) during Meiyu period in Hubei Province in 2016, firstly, the sounding data of Hankou station were compared with the horizontal wind speed and wind direction from Hankou and Xianning wind profile radar stations. It was found that the horizontal wind speed below 3 km from Hankou wind profile radar station was close to sounding data in the “6·19” and “7·5” processes; the horizontal wind direction and wind speed below 8 km from Xianning wind profile radar station were basically consistent with the sounding data in the three processes. Combined with the data of conventional and encrypted automatic weather stations, the horizontal wind field, average vertical velocity and its variability, vertical shear of horizontal wind speed and atmospheric refractive index structure constant $C_{n}^{2}$ were analyzed by using wind profile radar. The results are as follows: (1) The southwest wind speed increased significantly before the beginning of precipitation. The invasion of dry and cold air in the middle layer and the mesoscale easterly air flow formed by the ground cold pool were the main reasons for the occurrence of strong winds with more than and equal to 17.2 m·s^-1 at 50 stations in the “6·19” process, and the long-term maintenance of the southwest jet and the easterly air flow below 1 km in the “7·5” and “7·19” processes were the inducements for the long duration of short-term heavy precipitation. (2) The vertical shear of horizontal wind speed, the variation of average vertical velocity and its variability with height observed by wind profile radar were small, and strong upward movement was mainly concentrated below 4 km height. (3) Before the occurrence of heavy precipitation, the atmospheric water vapor content had an increasing process, and the water vapor content in the whole layer was deep. The disappearance of the large value area of $C_{n}^{2}$ corresponded to the end of precipitation.