A torrential rainfall case, which happened in Guangdong Province during December 14-16, 2013, broke the historical rainfall record in the province in terms of duration, affected area, and accumulative precipitation. The influence of anthropogenic aerosols on this extreme rainfall event was examined using a coupled meteorology-chemistry-aerosol model.Enhancement of precipitation in the estuary and near the coast up to 33.7 mm was mainly attributed to aerosol-cloud 15 interactions, whereas aerosol-radiation interactions partially compensated 14% of the precipitation increase. Responses of precipitation to changes in anthropogenic aerosols from local (i.e., Guangdong province) and remote (i.e., outside Guangdong province) sources were also investigated through simulations with reduced aerosol emissions from either local or remote sources. Accumulated aerosol concentration from local sources aggregated mainly near the surface and diluted quickly after the precipitation initiated. By contrast, aerosol concentration from remote emissions extended up to 8 km and lasted much 20 longer before decreasing until peak rainfall began, because aerosols were continuously transported by the strong northerly.Although the patterns of precipitation response to remote and local aerosols resembled each other, remote aerosols contributed more than twice the precipitation increase compared with local aerosols, occupying a predominant role. Ten times of the emission sensitivity test resulted in about ten times of PM2.5 concentration compared with the control run. The patterns of precipitation and cloud property changes also resembled that in the control run, but with much greater magnitude. The average 25 precipitation in Guangdong province decreased by 1.0 mm but increased by 1.4 mm in the control run. We noted that the reinforced precipitation increase was concentrated within a more narrowed downstream region, whereas the precipitation decrease was more dispersed across the upstream region. This indicates that the excessive aerosols not only suppress rainfall but also change the spatial distribution of precipitation, increasing the rainfall range, thereby potentially exacerbating flood and drought elsewhere. This study highlights the importance of considering aerosols in meteorology to improve extreme 30 weather forecasting. Furthermore, aerosols from remote emissions may outweigh those from local emissions in the cloud invigoration effect.Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.