A Chinese meteorologist said Saturday that El Nino does indeed affect China's climate to some extent, but its influence should not be exaggerated.

Speaking at the country's first climate conference, Chao Jiping, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that China's climate is affected by many factors, since it is located on the East Asia monsoon belt, and its geographical situation is quite complicated.

With an average elevation of more than 4,000 meters, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau blocks or diverts monsoons from the Indian Ocean, so that the climate of both the eastern and western parts of the country are dramatically changed.

Cold fronts from the North Pole often affect north China's winter weather.

In addition, monsoons from the Pacific Ocean also influence the country's climate.

Chao said occurrences of El Nino always bring natural disasters to the countries neighboring the equator, but do not often trouble China.

Statistics show that El Nino has occurred 11 times during the past 40-odd years, bringing floods to the countries close to the equator, such as Indonesia and Peru.

However, during this period China was severely affected by El Nino only once, he said.

In 1998, under the influence of El Nino, north China suffered a bitter drought, while south China was troubled by floods.

According to him, the main effect of El Nino on China is that it reduces the frequency of typhoons, while La Nina increases the frequency.

However, the sandstorms that took place this spring did not have any connection with El Nino, he pointed out. The sandstorms should be attributed to a cold front from Siberia which passed over eroded land and carried sand eastward.

( People's Daily April 7, 2002)