Weather experts admit drought mistake

来源：百度文库 编辑：神马文学网 时间：2024/10/04 05:30:07

Weather experts admit drought mistake

09:02, April 09, 2010      

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China's meteorological authority this week admitted its failure in forecasting the devastating drought affecting more than 61 million people in Southwest China, according to media reports.

"We failed to make a precise forecast on the drought that has lasted so long due to our limited scientific and technological levels," Ren Fumin, an official with the National Climate Center, told People's Daily.

Predicting the climate is much more difficult than forecasting short-term weather conditions, he said, because the former requires more indicators from the atmosphere or even outer space, such as solar activity.

"Our knowledge about the indicators from the outer atmosphere and their relations with climate change is limited," he said.

In April 1998, Chinese meteorologists accurately predicted the Yangtze River would burst its banks that summer. Such success stories, however, are rare.

"Forecasting the climate remains a major challenge for meteorological departments, although we have been working hard on this over the years," said Yu Xinwen, spokesman for the China Meteorological Administration.

Due to the low accuracy of predications, they are often only provided to government officials, rather than released to the public, he said.

The ongoing drought, the worst in a century, has lingered in Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, Chongqing municipality and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region since last September.

The natural disaster has left almost 20 million people, as well as millions of livestock, short of drinking water.

Source: China Daily

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