General Situation

General Climate Situation in China    In 2005, the average annual precipitation of the country was a little more than the historical average, the annual average temperature was distinctively higher than the historical average, and the annual number of sunshine hours in most parts of mainland China was near or less than the historical average. Although there was no incidence of large-scale and lasting severe drought during the whole year and the frequency of spring sandstorms was less than the historical average. However, disasters like typhoon, rainstorm and flood and low temperature and freeze injury were more severe than normal years, and severe convective weathers such as gale, hail, tornado and thunderstorm occurred frequently. In 2005, the climatic disasters on the whole were similar to that of normal years with better agricultural climate. Compared with 2004, the degree of climatic disasters was heavier and the overall situation was worse than normal level.

Precipitation Distribution   The average annual precipitation of China in 2005 was 631 mm, 17.7 mm more than in normal years. Most parts of China received the annual precipitation over 500 mm except for regions of the northern part of North China, Northwest China, southwestern part of Southwest China and Inner Mongolia where annual precipitation were below 500 mm.

Changes in Average Annual Precipitation of China (in millimeter)

Distribution of Precipitation in China in 2005 (in millimeter)

Temperature Distribution  The national annual average temperature in 2005 was 9.4℃, 0.6℃ higher than previous years. It was also the sixth warmest year since 1951. It was at the same level with 2003 while a bit lower than in 2004. Besides, the annual average temperature was higher than the historical average for the 9^th consecutive year.

Changes of Annual Average Temperature of China (℃)

Climate Disasters  In 2005, China experienced various kinds of climatic disasters such as drought, rainstorm and flood, typhoon, gale, hail, thunderstorm, tornado, high temperature, snow disaster, low temperature and freeze. Within the whole year, various kinds of natural disasters had incurred direct economic losses totaling 204.2 billion yuan with 2,475 deaths, falling into the category of rather severe disaster hit years. A total of 38.818 million ha of crops were affected, among which drought, 69% suffered from rainstorm and flood disasters. In the southern part of South China, severe drought stretched across the three seasons of autumn, winter and spring; Yunnan experienced heavy drought in spring which rarely occurred in the past 50 years; the northeastern part of Northwest China and Inner Mongolia witnessed lasting drought during summer and autumn; the western part of the regions south of the Yangtze River and the western part of South China saw a certain period of prominent drought in autumn; the Xijiang River, Minjiang River, Huaihe River basins, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Liaoning suffered from great rainstorm and flood disasters; and the Weihe River and Han River basins were stricken by very big flood during the autumn.

【Drought】In 2005, the scope of areas hit by drought was relatively small with less economic loss. Fortunately, there was no lasting severe drought on large scale, and the drought degree was lower than previous years. However, in the southern part of South China, severe drought lasted for three seasons of autumn, winter and spring; Yunnan experienced heavy drought in spring rarely occurred in the past 50 years; the mid and lower reaches of the Yangtze River were hit by drought in early summer; the northeastern part of Northwest China and Inner Mongolia witnessed lasting drought during summer and autumn; the western part of the regions south of the Yangtze River and the western part of South China saw a certain period of prominent drought in autumn.

【Typhoon/Tropical Storm】There were 8 typhoons or tropical storms landed in China in 2005. These typhoons were of high grade, large scale and heavy damaging impact causing the greatest losses ever since 1997. In particular, No. 0509 typhoon of "Matsa" was the one causing the largest scale of impact and economic losses.

【Storm and Flood】 The disaster of storm and flood in 2005 was heavier than in normal years. The Xijiang River, Minjiang River, Huaihe River basins, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan and Liaoning suffered from great rainstorm and flood disaster, and Weihe River and Han River basins suffered from very big flood during autumn.

【Sand Storm】During the spring of 2005, 5 sand and dust storms occurred across China, the strongest of which occurred from April 27~28, strongly affecting Eren Hot City, Abag Banner, Mandula area and Xilin Hot City of Inner Mongolia.

【Thunderstorm】In 2005, the disaster of thunder strike hit across the country with high frequency, large scale and great impact. According to estimate, more than 11,000 cases of thunder strikes occurred in 2005 around China, among which over 700 cases caused human casualties, and over 200 cases caused fire or explosion accidents. Consequently, more than 1,100 cases of building damage and over 2,700 cases of power supply failure occurred. Throughout the whole year of 2005, thunderstorm disasters had altogether caused more than 1,300 casualties with around RMB 600 million yuan direct economic losses and several billion yuan indirect economic losses.

Typhoons and Tropical Storms Landed in China in 2005

Major Sand and Dust Weathers in China in the Spring of 2005

Earthquake Disasters  In 2005, China had experienced 22 earthquakes over the Richter scale of 5, four of which were of Richter scale 6 ~ 7 and the remaining 18 were of Richter scale 5 ~ 6. Mainland China was hit by 13 earthquakes and Taiwan by 9 quakes.

11 of the earthquakes that occurred in the mainland in 2005 caused disasters. The population affected by the disasters was 2.084 million. The total area affected by the disasters was approximately 15039.7km². 15 people died, 90 were heavily injured, and 777 were lightly injured. The disasters altogether caused damages to houses of 3,457,153m², 543,515m²were of severe damage, 9,916,280m²were of medium damage and 10,624,541m²were of slight damage. The direct economic loss caused by earthquake disasters was RMB 2.63 billion yuan.

Earthquake Disasters and Their Damages in Mainland China in 2005

No.	Date		Venue	Magni- tude	Casualties (Persons)			Damage to Buildings (m2)				Direct economic losses ( 10,000 yuan)
	Day/Month	Time			Death	Serious-ly injured	Slightly injured	Des- troyed	Seri- ous	Medium	Light
1	Jan, 5th	6:05	Barkam, Sichuan	4.7	0	0	0		1420	18188	98814	653
2	Jan, 26th	0:30	Simao, Yunnan	5.0	0	0	5	9870	28206	83617	442485	5280
3	Feb., 15th	7:38	Wushen, Xinjiang	6.2	0	0	0	197121	278622	657521	945201	15757.43
	Feb., 15th	19:16	Wushen, Xinjiang	5.1
4	April, 8th	4:04	Zhongba, Tibet	6.5	0	0	0		2151	6053	11496	1034.2
	April, 8th	5:41	Zhongba, Tibet	5.2
5	June, 2nd	4:06	Medog, Tibet	5.9	0	0	0	5048	16513	31789	78177	4187.4
6	July, 25th	23:43	Heilongjiang	5.1	1	1	10	23105		60758	19400	2744.68
7	Aug., 5th	22:14	From Huize, Yunnan to Huidong, Sichuan	5.3	0	4	40	41863	154220	468037	2141590	16998
8	Aug. 13th	12:58	Wenshan, Yunnan	5.3	0	2	27	8385	33971	84646	869640	9220
9	Aug., 26th	5:08	Moyu, Xinjiang	5.2	0	0	0	4246	14176	21620	20816	644.7
10	Oct., 27th	19:18	Pingguo, Guangxi	4.4	1	1	2	805		10817		2532
11	Nov., 26th	8:49	Between Jiujiang and Ruchang of Jiangxi	5.7	13	82	693	3166710	14236	8473234	5996922	203759.39
Total					15	90	777	3457153	543515	9916280	10624541	262810.8

Note: Three-category classification of destroyed, damaged and basically intact were adopted for buildings during the investigation of earthquake damages to buildings in rural areas of Lindian of Heilongjiang, Pingguo of Guangxi and the earthquake between Jiujiang and Ruchang of Jiangxi.

Geological Disasters  In 2005, a total of 17,751geological disasters happened in China, 854 of which had caused human casualty or direct economic losses over 500,000 yuan. Those disasters led to overall casualty of 1,021 with 578 deaths, 104 missing and 339 injured.

【Landslide】  In 2005, a total of 9,359 cases of landsides had happened across China, mainly distributing in the provinces (municipalities) of Fujian, Anhui, Hubei, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Guangdong, etc. Among them, Fujian was the hardest hit by 5,934 cases of landslides, accounting for 63.4% of the total in China in 2005.

【Collapse】  The year of 2005 saw altogether 7,654 cases of collapses mainly in Anhui, Fujian, Zhejiang, Hainan, etc. Anhui Province, in particular, suffered from 6,445 cases of such disaster, taking up 84.2% of the total cases of China in 2005.

【Mud-rock Flow】  A total of 566 cases of mud-rock flow had occurred around China in 2005 mainly in provinces (municipalities) of Anhui, Xinjiang, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Liaoning, Hubei, Shaanxi, etc. Among them, Anhui province experienced 333 cases of such disaster, registering 58.8% of the total cases of China in 2005.

【Earth Collapse】  A total of 137 cases of earth collapse happened in China mainly in provinces of Guangdong, Hubei, Shandong, etc.

【Earth Subsidence】  Over 50 cities and regions across the country experienced earth subsidence mainly distributed in the Pearl River Delta region, North China Plain, Fen-Wei Basin, etc.

【Ground Fissure】  Ground fissure mainly occurred in provinces of Henan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Hubei, Guizhou, Hebei, etc, generally resulted by factors such as groundwater extraction, mine exploration and precipitation.

【Seawater Invasion】  Seawater invasion often occurred in Shandong Province and Liaoning Province. The accumulated area of seawater invasion land in cities of Yantai, Qingdao, Weihai and Rizhao of Shandong Province totaled 649 km² while that in cities of Jinzhou, Huludao and Dalian of Liaoning numbered 740 km². In particular, the city of Dalian witnessed the addition of 27 km² of seawater invasion area in 2005, and other areas saw no substantial variation.

Marine Disasters  2005 was a year witnessing high frequency of marine disasters affecting large areas. All the 11 coastal provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) suffered from such disasters, causing the largest economic losses ever since 1949. There were a total of 176 disasters of storm surges, red tides, ocean waves and oil spills during the whole year, causing direct economic losses of RMB 33.24billion yuan with 371 deaths or missing.

In 2005, the direction economic losses China had suffered from storm surges, red tides and ocean waves grew by almost 5 times than in 2004. Among them, storm surge (including typhoon waves alongshore) was the primary marine disaster in 2005, causing the direct economic losses of 32.98 billion yuan and 137 death or missing. 66 cases of ship sinking accidents and marine accidents with casualties caused by cold-air waves and cyclone waves occurred in offshore areas, resulting in 234 death or missing and 191 million yuan of direct economic losses. Red tides also caused 69 million yuan of direct economic losses. However, sea ice didn't lead to any apparent economic loss.

Losses Caused by Major Marine Disasters in 2005

Countermeasures and Actions

【Anti-thunderstorm Measures】In January of 2005, China Meteorological Administration (CMA) issued two sector regulations of the Regulations on the Administration of Professional Qualification of Anti-Thunderstorm Projects (Decree No. 10 of CMA) and the Provisions on the Examination of the Designing and Completion Checkup and Acceptance of Anti-Thunderstorm Facilities (Decree No. 11 of CMA) in an effort to further strengthen and standardize the administration of anti-thunderstorm activities.

【Artificial Rainfall Enhancement and Hail Prevention】In 2005, the overall target area for artificial rainfall enhancement projects was about 2.58 million km² nationwide. 37 planes were leased with accumulated 608 flying tasks totaling 1,530 hours. Artificial rainfall increase by high-angle gun and rockets totaled over 17,600 times. Over 45,700 times' artificial hail prevention tasks were carried out in 25 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities), Dalian, Qingdao and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, covering an area of over 440,000 km². This work had effectively prevented and reduced hail damage to agriculture.

【Earthquake Monitoring】  The construction of earthquake monitoring station network was in full swing with the enhancement of both monitoring scope and capacity. As a result, 90% of the national territory was under the monitoring network that can detect earthquakes with the magnitude over grade 3, the National Earthquake Instant Reporting System realized real time on-line connection, and the time span of earthquake instant reporting was greatly shortened with its accuracy remarkably improved.

【Prevention of Earthquake Disasters】The Technical Specification on Earthquake Safety Assessment of Project Sites jointly issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the Standardization Administration of China took effect on October 1, 2005. The Specification stipulated technical requirements and methods for the assessment of earthquake safety of project sites, thus providing the basis for site selection of various construction, identification of the requirements for their anti-earthquake design and the earthquake safety assessment of project sites involved in earthquake prevention planning as well as social and economic development planning.

【International Emergency Aids on Tsunami and Earthquake Disasters】In 2005, Chinese International Rescuing Team carried out four batches of two times of international rescuing missions for the tsunami in Indonesia and earthquake disaster in Pakistan. In the wake of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Pakistan, the Chinese International Rescuing Team dispatched 90 person/time in two groups, heading for the worst-hit region of Balakaut in Pakistan for a 32-day mission of work including emergency searching, first aid, medical treatment, epidemic prevention, disaster assessment and identification of post-disaster trend. In addition, the Chinese team also served as international rescuing coordinator, playing a crucial role in coordinating the rescue efforts of international communities. This rescuing work of China again won extensive recognition and praise from the international communities.