China will expand its weather warning information release channels and to expedite the institution of its national weather warning signal system in 2005, said a top official with the China Meteorological Administration on Wednesday.

"Since the launching of the weather warning signals last year, great improvements have been made in disaster prevention and damages reduction," said Wang Bangzhong, deputy director of the Department of Forecasting Services and Disaster Mitigation of the CMA.

But there are still problems, such as less efficient information release channels and different weather warning signals adopted in different regions, said Wang.

Some regions such as China's southern Guangdong Province, eastern Fujian Province, northwestern Qinghai Province, Shanghai Municipality and Shenzhen City have their own set of warning signals, which differ from the standard one issued last year, acknowledged Wang.

"As a public warning service, weather warning signals should use the same standard to avoid confusion and misleading information," he said. "Through negotiating with the local government, we will try our best to make these localities adopt one standard this year."

Through expanding dissemination channels to include radios, televisions, short messages via mobile phones, electric bulletins on streets and Internet around the country, the warning information will reach the recipients sooner before the disaster weather comes, said Wang.

The Regulation on Issuance of Abrupt Meteorological Warning Signals issued last August classified disasters by four levels with four colors of signals -- Blue, Yellow, Orange and Red -- from the least severe to the most.

The signals will be used to 11 meteorological disasters comprising typhoon, torrential rain, heat wave, cold wave, fog, sandstorm, thunderstorm, gale, hail, snowstorm and road freezing,

Summary made by the CMA on meteorological disasters in 2004 says that China suffered less meteorological adversities last year although some regions witnessed more floods, rainstorms, lightning strikes, hailstones and mud-rock flows with severe losses.

(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2005)