People living near the Three Gorges Reservoir will find winters a little warmer and summers a little cooler after water storage begins in June next year.

The weather changes, which will affect a 10-km radius of the reservoir on the Yangtze River, will also include a moderate increase in rainfall which will favor more tropical plants, such as orange, tung oil, longan and lychee trees.

The forecast was made by meteorologists from the National Meteorological Center and the Hubei provincial and Chongqing municipal meteorological stations in central and southwestern China after a seven-year weather simulation experiment which studied the effect of the world's largest hydropower project on China's longest river.

According to the outcome of the experiment, a host of meteorological indices, including the wind, temperature and humidity, will change to a greater degree in summer than in winter.

The water storage will have a comparatively evident impact on temperatures. The results show the extreme highest temperature near the reservoir will fall by four degrees Celsius, while the extreme lowest temperature will rise by three degrees.

However, the rise in humidity would possibly lead to more foggy days, which might affect to some extent the land and water traffic.

In addition, the increase in vapor and fog will also cause more frequent acid rains, which may move from urban areas to the countryside due to rising wind speeds.

The damming of the diversion canal on the project on November 6 stopped the natural flow at the world-renowned Three Gorges.

(Xinhua News Agency December 2, 2002)