GENEVA -- The current La Nina weather phenomenon may just be a partial cause of South China's freeze-up at the start of 2008, said the United Nations World Meteorological Agency (WMO) Monday.
The latest La Nina pattern, which began in the third quarter of 2007, has picked up strength in the past three months, with sea surface temperatures now about 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius colder than average over large parts of the eastern and central equatorial Pacific Ocean, said the latest report issued by the WMO.
However, he said China's freeze-up was a result of several causes combined and was partly caused by a cold surge from the north and west.
La Nina is a large pool of unusually cold water in the equatorial Pacific that develops every few years and influences global weather. It is the climatic opposite of El Nino, a warming of the Pacific, and both have been associated with extreme weather around the globe.
rescuer carries an 80-year-old woman out of Jinlian village in Longnan county
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