The Consultation Meeting of Summer Prediction in 2008 was held in Beijing on April 7. More than 100 experts from Provincial Meteorological Bureaus, National Meteorological Center, National Satellite Meteorological Center, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, the Ministry of Water Resources, Institute of Atmospheric Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University and Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology attended the meeting. Dr. Li Weijing (Deputy Director-General of BCC) presided the opening ceremony. Dr. Xu Xiaofeng (Deputy Administrator of CMA) and Dr. Jiao Meiyan (Director-General of Department of Forecasting Services and Disaster Mitigation) attended the meeting and made speech.
The meeting last for two days to analysis the major physical factors that impact on China or regional area's flood season precipitation, exchange the prediction methods and results from different units, predict the floods/droughts trend of China rainfall season of 2008, the distribution of the main rainy belts and seven major river basins precipitation, summer temperature trends prediction of 2008 (especially the low temperature in Northeast China), and predict the tropical storms and typhoons that formed and landed in China in the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea in 2008.
Dr. Xu Xiaofeng (Deputy Administrator of CMA) expressed our warm welcome to the participants. He said that the climate prediction became more important because CPC Central Committee and State Council paid great attention on it, the first meeting of each year of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters use our prediction results. We had great pressure, as climate prediction is still a scientific problem in the world, there are many uncertainties. Earlier this year China suffered rare historical low-temperature ice rain, snow and freezing weather, maybe it will influence China this summer. Facing the new situation and new demands, we hope experts will make a careful analysis on weather and climate characteristics and their impacts, summed up the law, and make a better summer climate prediction in 2008. Providing scientific basis for this year's disaster prevention and mitigation with more objective and scientific results.
