General Situation of Climate

In 2007, some parts of China experienced abnormal climate with the frequent occurrence of extreme climatic events and many combined appearance of climatic disasters. The annual average temperature of the year was 1.3℃ higher than that of the historical average, the highest of all years with observation records. The annual average precipitation of China was close to the historical average but with uneven distribution. In specific, the spatial distribution of precipitation appeared to be more in the west and less in the east compared with that of historical average. In particular, the central and western part of northwest China saw apparently more precipitation, and the central part saw more precipitation and northern and southern part saw less in east China.
Precipitation  In 2007, national annual average precipitation was 607.9 mm, close to the historical average with uneven annual spatial distribution. The western part of northeast China and eastern part of Inner Mongolia, the northern part of Jiangxi and western part of South Xinjiang witnessed 20% ~ 50% less precipitation than that of historical average, while central and western part of northwest China, Shandong peninsular and the northern part of Jiangsu-Anhui saw 20% ~ 50% more precipitation than that of historical average with central and southern part of Xinjiang, northwestern part of Gansu and northern part of Qinghai saw over 50% of increment. The precipitation of most of the rest parts of China was the same as the historical average.

Temperature Distribution  In 2007, the annual average temperature of China was 10.1℃, 1.3℃ higher than the historical average. It was the warmest year for all years with observation record and also the 11th consecutive warmer year than historical average. Different parts of China all witnessed higher annual average temperature with remarkably higher temperature in north China and central and eastern part of China in particular. The temperature of northeast China, most parts of north China and the watersheds of the Yellow River and Huaihe River, the watersheds of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, most parts of south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and of northwest China as well as central and western part of Tibet were 1 ~ 2℃ higher than the historical average.

General Situation of Natural Disasters
Meteorological Disaster  In 2007, all kinds of meteorological disasters had incurred 234.2 billion yuan of direct economic losses, higher than the average since 1991. drought and storms and flood were still the leading kind of meteorological disaster with the areas affected registering 82% of the total areas affected by all kinds of meteorological disasters. The areas of cropland affected by drought saw substantial increment than that of the previous year, while the proportion of hails, tropical cyclones, freezing damage and snow disaster were all less than that in 2006.
【Storms and Flood】 Some parts of south China suffered from severe storm and flood in early summer of 2007; during the flood season, the river basins of Huaihe River was afflicted by great floods with the level only less than the one of 1954 ever since the founding of the new China; Chongqing, Jinan and other cities experienced serious storm and flood disaster in their urban area; and Henan, Shaanixi and Shanxi witnessed special great mountain torrents in late July. Yunnan saw special great mud-stone flow and landslide disaster from July 18 to 21.
【Drought】 In 2007, north China was afflicted by large-scale spring drought; some parts of northeast China saw severe summer drought; and the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and south China was struck by severe high-temperature summer drought and special great autumn drought once in 50 years lasting till early winter. The scale and level of drought disasters were relatively serious. In early May of the peak season of drought, the affected areas nationwide mounted to 14.93 million ha, 3 million ha more than the historical average. 8.97 million people and 7.52 million livestock experienced temporary difficulty in drinking water supply caused by drought.
【Sand and Dust Storm】In 2007, the northern part of China witnessed 2 days of sand and dust on average, 3.6 days less than the historical average, ranking the third least year between 1961~2007 in terms of number of sand and dust days in spring. In the spring of 2007, 15 sand and dust days occurred in north China, less than that of the same period in 2006; 1 case of strong sand and dust storm appeared, 4 times less than that of 2006. The occurrence of sand and dust days was rather concentrated within a certain period of time with 5 occurrences during the 11 days from March 24 to April 3 with the average occurrence of one case in tow days. The strong sand and dust storm weather from March 30 to 31 was the one of the largest scale and strongest level which had affected most parts of northwestern part and northern part of China.
【Tropical Cyclone and Lightning Strike】In 2007, 8 tropical cyclones landed in China, 1 more than the historical average. They had caused the death of 84 people with 29.77 billion yuan of direct economic losses. Local strong convective weather had made frequent appearance, and lightning strikes had caused severe damage. In particular, Jiangxi, Chongqing and Zhejiang were heavily impacted, causing the death of 50 people.
【High Temperature and Heat Wave & Freezing Damage/Snow Disasters】In 2007, most regions across China had experienced 10 ~ 15 more high temperature days than the historical average, and the longest consecutive high temperature days of some parts of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Guangxi exceeded the maximum record compared with the same period in history. 4.072 million ha of cropland across China suffered from freezing damage and snow disaster.
Earthquake Disasters  There were 17 earthquakes with Richter scale above Grade 5 across China in 2007. Among them, 7 were of Grade 6~7 by Richter scale; and 10 were of Grade 5~6 by Richter scale. 6 of them occurred in the mainland of China and 11 of them in seas or Taiwan region.
3 earthquake disasters occurred in the mainland of China in 2007, affecting about 767 thousand people and total area of 8,258 km² with 3 deaths, 28 serious injuries and 391 slight injuries. They also caused the following damages to buildings: 1,370,605 m² destructed, 301,919 m² of serious damage, 5,809,546 m² of moderate damage and 2,817,720 m² of slight damage. Total direct economic loss was about 2.019 billion yuan.

Geological Disaster  In 2007, there were 25,364 cases of various geological disasters across China with the casualty of 1,123 people including 598 death, 81 missing and 444 injury. 920 cases of geological disasters were successively avoided with the safe transfer of over 37,900 people and the saving of 554 million yuan of economic losses. The number of casualty and property damage caused by such disasters were both less than that of the previous year.
Marine Disasters  A total of 163 marine disasters such as storm surge, sea wave, sea ice, red tide and tsunami occurred in 2007, causing direct economic loss of 8.837 billion yuan and 161 death (including missing). In specific, 30 were storm surge, leading to 18 death (including missing) and 8.715 billion yuan of direct economic loss; 50 were sea wave, leading to 143 death (including missing) and 116 million yuan of direct economic loss; and 82 were red tides resulting in 6 million yuan of direct economic loss.

Measures and Actions

【Early Warning and Forecasting of Meteorological Disasters】 Various types of forecasting such as rainfall, waterlogging and geological disasters were timely forecasted during the flood season, and work on traffic meteorological forecasting and the forecasting on high temperature prone to causing heat stroke were strengthened while taking consideration of the impact of meteorological disaster on transportation. The meteorological services covers diversified sectors of agriculture, fishery, forestry, water conservancy, civil affairs, land resources, transportation, tourism, aviation, radio, film and television, telecommunication, urban construction, electric power, tobacco, building, ocean and sports. In addition, technical training was held to relevant personnel of 18 areas subject to relatively severe geological disasters.
【Earthquake Disaster Prevention and Emergency Rescue】  In 2007, over 970 seismic survey stations as well as over 610 earthquake precursory observatory stations were established, the work on the detection of active fault of 20 key cities for monitoring and prevention and for the earthquake zoning of 22 cities were completed; the demonstrational work on the earthquake prevention and alleviation of 12 cities (districts) for monitoring and prevention were launched, and around 2 million rural residents moved into new aseismatic houses; 68 large and medium-sized cities of 20 provinces (regions or municipalities) had set up over 400 earthquake emergency shelters; the national earthquake emergency response and rescue team and 26 similar teams at the provincial level were organized boasting over 3,000 professional staff, and the earthquake emergency response and rescue team at city or county level and the community rescue team of volunteers gathered more than 100 thousand people. They had played a crucial role in offering 5 times of 7 batches of international humanitarian emergency relief aid, various domestic disaster relief efforts and relevant emergency and rescue moves.

Note: National statistics in the current otherthan administrative zoning, national land and earthquake disasters does not include that of Taiwan Province, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macao Special Administrative Region.