The current working priority for China's meteorological firms
involves exploring an extended weather forecast system that would
operate 10 to 30 days in advance, claimed the Director of China
Meteorological Administration (CMA) Zheng Guoguang on Thursday in
Beijing at a seminar on the snow and frost disasters that plagued
south China for one month beginning in mid-January, the Beijing
Morning Post reported on Friday.
Experts from the CMA, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking
University, the State Grid Cooperation of China and the Ministry of
Communications attended the seminar.
According to Zheng, accurate short-term, or three to five days
ahead, weather forecasts can be basically accomplished at present,
but establishing a long-term forecast system targeting things like
the batch of continuous extreme weather China recently experienced
is urgently needed.
At Thursday's seminar Prof. Yang Xiuqun from Nanjing University
presented a group of overseas statistics demonstrating the
possibility of relatively precise weather forecasts made at least
seven days in advance.
Measures are needed to prevent future communication shutdowns
caused by freezing rain. The Ministry of Communications unveiled at
the seminar a plan to cooperate with the CMA to set up ice
thickness monitoring stations on the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway, one
prime north-south communication artery of the country.
In addition, meteorological and power grid enterprises were
advised to kick off special research on the anti-wind and frost
capacity of power transmitting wires based on ice observation data
of different areas. This will provide a sound basis for setting
wires' ice carrying weight in the future.
Disasters caused by prolonged low temperatures, icy rain and
heavy snow in the southern part of China in the past month have
killed 107 people and left eight others missing as of Feb. 12,
Civil Affairs Minister Li Xueju said last week.
The country's direct economic losses were estimated at 111.1
billion yuan (US$15.4 billion), Li said.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting February 22, 2008)
