China experienced more climate-related disasters in May and is faced with a more complex climate this year than most of the previous years, said Chinese meteorologists Tuesday. 

They made the remarks at a meeting on how to improve the efficiency in dealing with the disasters in the flood season, which started from June this year across the country.

Two hundred and fifty-five people had been killed and 34 were missing in rainstorms, blizzards, thunderbolts and other climate-related disasters in May, said Jiao Meiyan, director of the National Meteorological Center under Chinese Meteorological Administration.

Most parts of the southern China received rainfall about 40 to 70 percent more than the average level in the previous years, and some even reported about 90 to 150 percent more rain than the previous years, Jiao said.

In May, about 300 counties and cities across 20 provinces, regions and municipalities have been hit by rainstorms, and some had been seriously pelted by hailstones.

The southern China entered into flood season in May, the earliest in the past five years, while the Yangtze River basin will brace for a more rainy season from mid-June, promising more landslide, flood and mud-rock flow in the flood-prone area, Jiao said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2005)