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C
apacity
D
evelopment
and warnings in association with the State Forestry
Administration (SFA). Since the spring of 1999, it has
provided the SFA Fire Office with meteorological forest
fire products including the current weather and climate
conditions, weather and climate forecasts, and climate
trend prediction in relation to forest fire risk during
a forest fire prone period. The meteorological service
for forest fires is developing at a quicker pace with its
operational capacities being continuously improved,
due to its contribution to nationwide forest fire preven-
tion and widely-recognized socioeconomic benefits.
BCC develops, among others, methodologies used for
climate trend-related forest fire risk predictions, and for
meteorological forest fire risk grade forecasts, as well
as operational climatic forest fire risk grade prediction
systems. The relevant services and products can be
accessed from the BCC website, with relevant bulletins
or tailored service links.
Benefits for decision-making and application services
Flood-prone season climate prediction provides an
important scientific basis for governments in their flood
control work, and accurate flood-prone season predic-
tion has played a significant role in disaster prevention,
preparedness and reduction. For example, the predic-
tion that above-normal precipitation would occur in
the Yangtze River basin in 1998 played a decisive role
in the flood prevention actions taken that year, and a
similar prediction for the Huaihe River Basin in 2008
also proved to be useful for flood prevention work in
the same year.
In addition, the products of climate pre-assessment
on such sectors as agriculture, water resources and
meteorological drought, based on climate predictions,
have provided strong scientific support to those sectors.
The specific applications of climate predictions in pre-
assessment for the agricultural sector are:
• Pre-assessment on agro-meteorological disaster risks
– based on the characteristics of agro-meteorological
disasters being monitored in combination with the
events in Northeast China in early summer may have a significant
impact on agriculture, this is another priority for seasonal predic-
tion service delivery.
Government decision-makers are major recipients of climate
prediction services in China. Among different types of prediction,
they mostly focus on predictions for the flood-prone season, which
provide scientific information in support of major decision-making
for disaster prevention, preparedness and management, agricultural
production planning and economic activities.
Information and products
The Beijing Climate Center (BCC), an operational climate predic-
tion unit in China, mainly provides tailored products in its climate
prediction and services for the flood-prone season such as Flood-
prone Season Climate Trends; Special Bulletin on Significant
Meteorological Events; and Climate Prediction Review among
others. These products are accessible through the BCC website.
1
They include the changing precipitation and temperature trends;
the frequency of tropical cyclones over the Northwest Pacific and
the South China Sea throughout the year (which may be numbered
for tracking or may land on China); the East Asian summer
monsoon, South China Sea monsoon, the South China pre-flood
season, plum rain in Yangtze-Huai River basin, and the North
China rainy season. The products are generated by BCC in collab-
oration with other China Meteorological Administration (CMA)
facilities and in partnership with external organizations, such as
the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (CAS), Water Information
Centre, National Marine Environmental Forecasting Centre,
General Staff Meteorology, Hydrology and Space Weather Center,
Shanghai Typhoon Institute, Peking University, and Nanjing
University of Information Science and Technology.
Apart from general climate prediction services, BCC also deliv-
ers specialized climate services for different sectors, such as sand
and dust storm trend prediction and forest fire risk forecasts
Source: BCC
Source: BCC
A pre-assessment of climatic conditions showing low
temperature and persistent rainfall for China in March 2011
Forest and grassland fire risk grade predictions
for autumn and winter 2009