2011-01-12 17:39

BEIJING - The extremely high temperatures, drought and heavy precipitation that China experienced in 2010 caused the worst damage in a decade, a senior China Meteorological Administration (CMA) official said Wednesday.

Song Lianchun, chief of the National Climate Center, said at a work conference in south China's Guangzhou City the extreme weather conditions last year caused the deaths of more than 4,800 people and resulted in direct economic losses of over 500 billion yuan.

Last year was a freakish meteorological year for China, with severe weather hitting the country with a frequency and intensity rarely seen, he said.

According to the conference report, China received 681 millimeters of precipitation in 2010, 11.1 percent above the average, while the number of rainstorm days was 21.5 percent above the average. The whole-year temperature was 0.7 percent above the average.

To minimize the damage brought by weather changes, the China Meteorological Administration pledged to raise its forecast accuracy 3 to 5 percent over the next five years.