June 30, 2009

China is facing a higher risk of more extreme weather as a trend toward increasing weather-related disasters has been recorded since the 1990s, top weather experts said.

 

Extreme weather will be more frequent in the future due to the instability of the atmosphere, while global warming might also be the indirect cause, said He Lifu, top weather forecaster at the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

 

Extreme weather events such as drought, storms and floods have become more frequent and severe in China, he said.

 

The CMA responded to 16 weather-related emergencies last year, the most since 1949.

 

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters also warned that drought has become more frequent, causing more crop failures in the country since the 1990s.

 

The agency said the scope of drought has been expanding over the past years, with drought becoming more severe in the north and spreading to the humid southern and eastern regions.

 

Grain loss caused by drought has averaged 37.28 million tonnes each year since 2000, nearly twice of that for the 1980s, according to Zhang Jiatuan, director of the agency's drought relief division.

 

The annual average proportion of drought-damaged crops in China jumped from 48 percent in the 1990s to about 59.3 percent since 2000.

 

The perceived rise in weather disasters in China coincided with last week's annual Red Cross report, which said a global trend toward increasing weather-related disasters was confirmed in 2008.

 

This month alone, intense storms and strong gales hit most parts of China. Anhui was hit twice, on June 3 and 14, killing 37 people.

 

Since last Wednesday (Jun 24), many northern provinces have been hit by scorching heat, with temperature rising to at least 35 degrees Celsius. The temperature in some regions of north Hebei province even hit 40 degrees Celsius.