General Situation

Basic National Climate In 2006, the annual average precipitation of China was slightly less than the historical average. National average precipitation in winter was slightly higher than that of normal year. Average precipitation in spring was similar to that of normal year but less in summer and autumn. There was obvious less precipitation in Chongqing and Sichuan in summer and most central and eastern China in autumn with drought at different degrees. National average temperature was 1.1℃ higher than the historical average, the warmest since 1951. China had abnormal and changeable climate with frequent meteorological disasters such as tropical cyclones, typhoons, drought, storms, floods, torrent, mud-stone flow and landslide, sand & dust storm, freezing damage and snow damages in 2006, which lead to more economic losses than historical average. To agriculture, the climate in 2006 was a normal year.

Precipitation In 2006, national annual average precipitation was 596.7 mm, down by 16.2 mm compared with the historical average. Except the areas south to WeiheRiver and downstream of the Yellow River, central and eastern parts of Northwest China, and central and eastern parts of Northeast China, the precipitation of other parts of China was less than 500 mm.

Changes in Average Annual Precipitation of China(mm)

National precipitation distribution in 2006 (mm)

Temperature Distribution In 2006, the annual average temperature of China was 9.9℃, 1.1℃ higher than the historical average. It was the warmest year since 1951. Apart from the northern part of Northeast China with similar air temperature, the annual average temperature across China was evidently higher than that of normal years. Among these regions, the average air temperature of such areas as Northwest China, most of Southwest, central and western part of North China, most of the mid and downstreams of the Yellow River, Huaihe River and Yangtze River and central and western part of Inner Mongolia was 1~2℃ higher than the historical average.

Annual change of annual average temperature in China(℃)

Meteorological Disaster In 2006, among various meteorological disasters in China, tropical cyclones caused most direct economic losses and deaths or missing people, while drought lead to the biggest disaster striken population and largest affected cropland area. There was no large scale serious flood disaster across China in 2006. The total area subject to storms and floods was less than that of normal years. However, storms and floods of some regions or disasters such as torrent, mud-stone flow and landslide resulting from local strong precipitation caused relatively big casualty. The occurrence of hails across China was more than that of normal years with heavier economic losses. In spring, China had 18 times of blowing dust weather, 5 of them were strong sand & dust storms, the highest occurrence since 2000. Total area subject to freezing damage and snow disaster was bigger than the historical average with more economic loss. In December of 2006, the sun had continual strong eruptions, the strongest solar activities since 1957.

【Tropical Cyclones】There were 6 tropical cyclones (Maximum wind force ≥Grade 8) landed in the mainland of China in 2006, less than the historical average (7 times). Among them, No. 0601 typhoon "Chanchu" landed on coastal areas of GuangdongProvince on May 18, more than 40 days earlier than the average historical landing date. It has been the earliest typhoon landing GuangdongProvince since 1949 and also the strongest one occurred in May since 1949. No. 0604 strong tropical storm "Bilis", landing on Xiapu of Fujian Province on July 14 and going into inland and interacting with southwest monsoon, brought about large scale and continuous strong precipitation with unprecedented scope and duration.

Tropical cyclones landing China in 2006

【Drought】In 2006, Ningxia, Gansu, Yunnan and North China had obvious drought in spring. The average temperature of Chongqing and Sichuan in summer had a record high since 1951. This was especially serious after July, Chongqing and eastern part of Sichuan suffered from continuous heat wave, leading to aggravated drought. As a result, Chongqing was nit by extreme summer drought once in 100 years and SichuanProvince suffered from the heaviest drought since 1951.

【High Temperature and Heat Wave】In 2006, high temperature over 35℃ occurred in such areas as eastern part of Northwest China, North China and the region south to it, Xinjiang and western part of Inner Mongolia. Among them, the extreme high temperature of such areas aseastern part of Sichuan, Chongqing, western part of Hubei and southern part of Shaanxi was as high as 38℃~45℃, the amount of high temperature days was 15~30 days more than the historical average.

【Storms and Flood】In 2006, there was no large scale serious flood disasters across China, total area subject to storms and flood disasters was smaller than that of normal years with less direct economic losses. However, disasters such as storms and floods in some regions and mountain area floods and mud-stone flow due to local strong precipitation caused relatively heavy casualties.

【Sand and Dust Storm】In the spring of 2006, there were 18 sand and dust weather across China, the most frequent since 2000. Among them, 11 were sand & dust storms and strong sand & dust storms. The strongest sand & dust storm occurred during April 9~11, affecting 13 provinces (autonomous regions or municipalities) and leading to 9 death.

Main sand & dust storms in China in the spring of 2006

【Hails】In 2006, China had frequent local strong convective weather such as gale, hail, tornadoes and thunderstorms. According to statistics, there were over 1200 county (city).times of hails or tornodoes across China, more than the historical average with heavier economic losses than that of normal years.

【Freezing Damage/Snow Disasters】In 2006, nearly 5 million ha of cropland across China suffered from freezing damage and snow disaster. The disaster affected area was bigger compared with that of normal years with more economic losses.

【Dence Fog】A dense fog at Gaoyou section of Beijing—Shanghai Expressway in Jiangsu Province on October 30, 2006 caused a very big traffic accident involving the collision of over 50 vehicles, leading to the injury of more than 50 people and 3 death. Large scale dense fogs occurred in such provinces or municipalities as Liaoning, Hebei, Beijing, Tianjin, Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu during November 19~20. The visibility of some parts of Liaoning, Hebei and Shandong was less than 200 m, leading to the paralysis or closure of many expressways in Liaoning Province, several traffic accidents on Beijing—Shenyang Expressway with 4 dead. More than 600 flights in CapitalAirport were delayed. In addition, heavy fogs caused evident increase of respiratory disease victims.

【Solar Activities】The sun had continual strong eruptions during December 5~16, 2006, which is the strongest solar activity since 1957. Because of the solar eruption, there were several times of long-term and large scale shortwave communication message attenuation and interruption with relatively strong additional current in power network in China and many abnormal operations of both domestic and foreign satellites.

Earthquake Disasters There were 34 earthquakes with Richter scale higher than Grade 5 across China in 2006. Among them, 1 was Grade 7 by Richter scale; 4 were Grade 6~7 by Richter scale; 29 Grade 5~6. 14 of them occurred in the mainland of China and 20 of them in seas or Taiwan region.

10 earthquake disasters occurred in the mainland of China in 2006, affecting about 666,900 people and total area of 7,168 km² with 25 deaths, 34 serious injuries and 170 slight injuries. They also caused the following damages to buildings: 546808.4 m2 destruicted, 93,966.9 m² of serious damage, 3,376,644.9 m² of intermediate damage, and 987,092.7 m² of slight damage. Total direct economic loss was about 800 million yuan.

Earthquake disasters and their losses in the mainland of China in 2006

Note：During the investigations on the damages of the earthquakes in Qian'an-Qianguojian of Jilin Province and one in Yanjin of Yunnan Province on simple rural buildings, we classified the damages in three kinds: complete destruction, damage and basically good.
SD = serious damage. LD = light damage.

Geological Disaster In 2006, there were 102,804 various geological disasters across China. They caused the casualty of 1,227, 663 of them dead, 111 missing and 453 injured, leading to direct economic loss of 4.32 billion yuan.

In 2006, sudden events dominated geological disasters. Except Beijing, Shanghai and Ningxia, all other 28 provinces (autonomous regions or municipalities) had sudden geological disasters mainly including landslide, collaps, mud-stone flow and subsidence etc. Among them, landslide had the most cases, accounting for 86.1% of the total geological cases in China. Chronic geological disasters mainly included subsidence, ground cleave and sea water invasion.

In 2006, geological disasters mainly distributed in central South China and Esat China subject to serious impacts of typhoon. Among them, the five provinces (autonomous regions) of Hunan, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi and Guangxi had 100,576 geological disasters, accounting for 97.8% of the total in China.

Marine Disasters 2006 is a year with serious marine disasters in China. A total of 179 marine disasters such as storm surge, sea wave, sea ice, red tide and tsunami occurred in the whole year, similar to that of 2005. They caused direct economic loss of 21.845 billion yuan, down by 11.4 billion yuan compared with that of 2005 and 492 deaths or missing, up by 121 people than in 2005.

Loss of major marine disasters in China in 2006