During the journey that quietly unfolded from January 31 to February 5, the most powerful rain, snow and freezing storm since 2009 swept through the heart of the motherland - the central and eastern regions. The Central Meteorological Observatory is carrying out emergency work in full swing, continuously issuing thrilling warning signals such as heavy snow, freezing, and violent winds. As the Lunar New Year is approaching, the large-scale rain, snow and freezing weather will undoubtedly bring great challenges to the Spring Festival transportation that is in the peak stage of returning home before the Spring Festival.
According to an in-depth analysis by the Central Meteorological Observatory, this appalling rain, snow and freezing storm showed many remarkable characteristics. First, it is difficult to choose how long it lasts and covers a wide range of rain and snow, secondly, it has a variety of precipitation patterns that have never been seen before before seen in freezing rain, thirdly, because of the intensity of rain and snow, the precipitation has reached a particularly extreme level in some areas, and finally, the depth of snow in the process is rare.
Let's use these weather data to see how the waves of this rain, snow and freezing storm can have a huge impact.
Just imagine, since January 31, this large-scale rain, snow and freezing weather that lasted for nearly six days, covering the central and eastern regions, affected 18 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government), and more than 2.5 million square kilometers of land were destroyed by it.
As the chief forecaster of the Central Meteorological Observatory narrated, we learned that the rain, snow and freezing weather was driven by the abundant water vapor brought by the deepening southern branch trough from the east and the cold air from the middle and high latitudes in the north. In the process, Cyclone Jianghuai intensified snowfall, bringing the already intense snowfall to its peak on February 3 and 4. However, due to the confrontation between cold air and warm and humid air currents, this dilemma has led to a long period of complex and variable rain and snow weather. The southern part of Henan, the northern part of Jiangsu and Anhui, Hubei, the northern part of Hunan, Guizhou and other places have been affected by this kind of suffering, experiencing frequent changes in various forms of precipitation such as sleet, rain turning to snow, snow, freezing rain, etc.
It is worth mentioning that this rain, snow and freezing storm brought a large-scale freezing rain to central and eastern Guizhou, central and northern Hunan, central and eastern Hubei, central Anhui, and southeastern Henan. What is shocking is that the total area affected by this freezing rain exceeds 300,000 square kilometers, and this is the most conspicuous in the scope and intensity of freezing rain since 2009! According to authoritative statistics, residents of more than 50 state-level meteorological observation stations in the central and eastern regions have experienced at least three days of freezing rain, and among them, Jingmen, Zhongxiang, and Yunmeng in Hubei Province have even reached as many as four days due to the excessive number of freezing rain days.
However, this freezing rain is often accompanied by extremely cold temperatures, which not only poses a serious threat of ice accumulation on the road surface and tracks, but also causes significant damage to the railway power grid, further affecting the normal operation of the railway. During this process, there were many times in eastern Hubei, northern Hunan, eastern Guizhou and other places. For example, as of 17 o'clock on the 5th, as many as 75 county-level administrative units in Hunan alone have experienced low temperature, rain, snow and freezing weather, of which 6 county-level administrative units have more than 10 mm of wire ice thickness, of which the largest wire ice thickness has reached 18 mm (located in Dongting Lake). In addition, from the 1st to the 4th, as many as 70 county-level administrative units in Hubei experienced freezing rain, and 25 county-level administrative units had an ice thickness of more than 10 mm on wires, of which the largest wire ice thickness in Wuhan City, Hubei Province was 10.6 mm.
And in this low-temperature rain, snow and ice storm, the intensity of the rain and snow is also spectacular. According to the detailed records of the meteorological department, significant rainfall occurred in southern Anhui, southern Jiangsu, Shanghai, northwest Zhejiang, and northeast Jiangxi. At the same time, the central and southeastern parts of Henan, eastern Hubei, northeast Hunan, central Anhui and other places have also suffered from the baptism of heavy snowfall, Hubei Jingzhou, Qianjiang, Xiaogan and other places have even suffered a heavy snowstorm raid, what is particularly frightening is that the precipitation in Xianning, Hubei, Yueyang and Changde in Hunan, Huangshan in Anhui and other places has exceeded an astonishing 90 mm.
During this period, the relevant agencies also made detailed statistics on the cumulative precipitation in the provincial capitals, and according to the results, a total of 9 cities recorded the highest cumulative precipitation in the same period in history! Among them, Wuhan City in Hubei Province (56.1 mm) and Zhengzhou City in Henan Province (11.4 mm) in the process of cumulative snowfall are particularly eye-catching.