In the course of extensive studies of trends in local weather conditions of China an international team of scientists found that the frequency of thunderstorms, hail storms and periods of strong winds since 1960 has decreased by almost 50 % the national average.
The researchers analyzed weather data, the Chinese National meteorological information center, including a network of 983 observatories, which meteorologists gather weather information from 1951 or earlier. This provided researchers an unprecedented look at the local active weather events.
“The majority of published data on weather trends were incomplete or covered a short period of time — said Fuqing Zhang, Professor of meteorology and atmospheric Sciences. Recording, we used the most extensive as time and territory.”
The team found that the strength of the East Asian summer monsoon decreased at the same rate as the frequency of turbulent weather conditions during the same time period. Monsoon is a recurrent, long-term weather phenomenon, which brings warm moist air from southern China in the summer and cold from the North in winter. The strength of the monsoon is measured by calculating the wind speed in the area of the middle Meridian.
“We believe that changes in the intensity of the monsoon affects extreme weather conditions in the area because of the strong correlation that we found, but we can’t say that monsoon is the only reason, explains Zhang. Monsoon is one of the main factors of weather disturbances because it affects the three key “ingredients
