Snowfall Eases Severe Drought in North China

Light to moderate snowfall has brought some relief to the wheat crops in several northern Chinese regions over the weekend, but the lingering drought affecting winter crops is far from being quenched.

Snow fell again in Beijing, Hebei, Tianjin and, for the first time, in most parts of Shandong from Saturday night to Sunday when meteorological authorities had performed cloud-seeding operations to increase snowfall to help ease drought.

From 8 p.m. Saturday to 8 a.m. Sunday, precipitation in Beijing averaged 1.7 mm. But Shandong, which suffered from the worst drought in 60 years, only received 0.3 mm of precipitation, on average, from 8 p.m. Saturday to 11 a.m. Sunday.

Meanwhile, the provinces of Henan and Anhui did not see any snowfall over the weekend, following the first winter snow last week.

Henan, Shandong, Hebei and Anhui provinces produce 65 percent of the wheat in China, and are the world's largest producer of the staple food.

The latest two rounds of snowfall in north China are of limited help in alleviating drought and the country should carry on anti-drought efforts, experts with the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said Sunday.

"To effectively ease drought, the hard-hit regions require at least 50 mm of precipitation. The latest snowfalls are far short of that amount," said Yu Zhenwen, an expert with the MOA.

Snow began falling late Wednesday over parched Shanxi, Henan, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. Most regions in north China and along the Yellow and Huaihe rivers received precipitation of less than 10 mm in the period.

Snowfalls starting on Saturday mainly concentrated in north China's Hebei Province and Beijing with precipitation of less than 5 mm. The major wheat-growing regions of Shandong and Henan provinces recorded no effective rainfall.

As of Sunday, the drought had affected 108.24 million mu (7.22 million hectares) of wheat crops in eight provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi and Gansu, of which, about 23.9 million mu were severely affected, according the MOA.

(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2011)