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La Nina to blame, says China

— PHOTO: Xinhua

COLD WAVE: Cars covered with snow at a residential quarters in Hangzhou, capital of China’s Zhejiang Province, on Saturday.

NANCHANG: The rare prolonged snowstorms and low temperatures that have caused havoc in many parts of China are mainly related to the La Nina phenomenon and abnormal atmospheric circulation, said meteorologists.

The severe weather strongly resembled the aftermath of La Nina events, said the meteorologists at the Jiangxi Provincial Meteorological Bureau.

La Nina is a large pool of unusually cold water in the equatorial Pacific that develops every few years and influences global weather. It is the climatic opposite of El Nino, which is a warming of the Pacific.

Experts said the La Nina conditions developed last August throughout the tropical Pacific and strengthened at the sharpest pace in 56 years. The sea-surface temperature during the past six months was 0.5 degree Celsius lower than normal years. “The La Nina weather pattern is expected to prevail at least till the end of spring,” said Jiao Meiyan, director of the National Meteorological Centre.

The meteorologists said the abnormal atmospheric circulation in some regions of Europe and Asia, which has persisted for nearly 20 days since mid-January, was responsible for the rampant chilly weather, rain and snowstorms. Snow storms that hit 19 provinces in southern and central China, the worst in 50 years, have killed more than 60 persons and forced nearly 1.8 million persons to relocate over the past three weeks, inflicting economic losses of about $7.5 billion, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Friday.

A State Council meeting on Friday, presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao, called on the nation to make greater efforts to ensure economic and social stability in the face of the bad weather.

The meeting urged stronger effort to repair the rail lines and give priorities to the transportation of coal and living necessities to supply Spring Festival market.

Power conservation is still vital. Party and government organisations should take a lead in saving energy to ensure power supply for people’s living, it said.

The meeting advised people to cut travel plans while pledging efforts to provide stranded passengers with food, warmth and medicine. Meanwhile, coal production should speed up, it said. — Xinhua

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