A few days ago, staff reporter Ko Chol Hwa had an interview with Song Chol Man, deputy director of the State Hydro-Meteorological Administration, about the frequent occurrence of natural disasters.

Ko : Recent years have witnessed frequent natural disasters. I think it is because of abnormal weather conditions caused by global warming.

Song : You are right. In early 2020, the World Meteorological Organization said that the world average temperature kept rising for scores of years, resulting in frequent occurrence of heat wave phenomenon which had been witnessed once in 100 years in the past.

It predicted that 2020 would be one of the hottest years ever since meteorological observation started. According to it, the world average temperature was the highest in 2016 and second highest in 2019, and the average temperature between January and October 2020 rose by about 1.2℃ as compared to that of the period before the industrial revolution.

As a result, several countries around the world suffered from catastrophic natural disasters caused by typhoons and heavy rains last year.

Some of northern and coastline areas of our country were also affected by abnormal weather conditions for several years including 2016.

Last year alone, the country had unseasonable rains from January 6 to 8 in most of the central and southern parts of the east and west coastal areas owing to the temperature rise, and typhoons Nos. 8, 9 and 10 hit the country in succession from August.

Ko : Would you tell me about the measures you have taken to cope with disastrous abnormal weather phenomena?

Song : We are trying to provide weather broadcasts in a preemptive and effective way.

When typhoons Nos. 8, 9 and 10 hit the country in succession from August 2020, we made prompt and accurate weather predictions about their routes and informed people of the situations in the afflicted areas with the help of TV and mobile communications network, so as to minimize the damage in different sectors of the national economy.

We also provided such necessary meteorological information as about drought and change in the water level of reservoirs caused by high temperature so that the agricultural sector and other relevant fields of the national economy could take measures to cope with untoward damage.

We introduced a system of forecasting offshore, deep-sea and coastal weather conditions so that the fishing, maritime transport and other sectors could promptly deal with disastrous weather conditions.

At present, we are broadcasting the warning levels of disastrous weather conditions to minimize the loss.

Ko : Please tell me about your future work.

Song : We are researching and introducing weather analyzing and forecasting techniques and methods, including disaster warning system and early short-term prediction system for promptly forecasting weather conditions.

Besides, we are planning to conduct data and sci-tech exchanges, joint research and observation, in close contact with the WMO and foreign countries.

In the future, we will further improve the scientific level of weather forecast on the basis of our achievements.