Xinhua reported that, this year, the major grain producing areas in Liaoning Province and Jilin Province in northeast China have suffered the rarest drought in over half a century. Crops have withered away and rivers have dried up. Even drinking water is in short supply.
On August 14, Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Xinrong said that since August, the amount of precipitation in northeast China has significantly declined. In some areas the reduction is as much as 79 percent compared to last year. In Inner Mongolia, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, more than 34 million mu have been hit by drought, with more than 15 million suffering from severe drought. “The drought situation is very grim,” Yu said.
Based on meteorological records, since July, Liaoning Province’s rainfall has been the lowest since 1951. Also starting in July, the drought-hit area has been growing by about 1 million mu per day.
In Jilin Province, the average rainfall since late July has been 65 percent lower than the same period last year, the second driest in history. The drought-hit area is growing rapidly. In some heavily hit drought areas, the relative humidity in the soil is below 40 percent. Even in non-drought areas, it is declining daily by one to two percentage points.
Precipitation in some areas of the Inner Mongolia Region has also hit the lowest on record since the same period in 1961.
Source: Xinhua, August 14, 2014