Chinanews, Beijing, November 26 ¨C According to the National Meteorological Administration, 2007 is the warmest year ever since China kept meteorological records, and a warm winter is expected to visit the country.

¡°2006 was the second warmest year in the world, and the warmest year in China, as the average temperature was 1.1 degree centigrade higher than the previous years. However, the record was broken in 2007, when the average temperature in the first 9 months of the year was 1.3 degrees higher,¡± said Zheng Guoguang, the director of the National Meteorological Administration.

Most parts of China have kept warming since 1950. Warming has already led to a series of disastrous weathers. Northeast China was hit by the strongest storm last March, bringing so heavy a snowfall that surpassed the total snowfall of several previous years. A hurricane in Xinjiang earlier in last spring toppled a train. Coastal areas witnessed several deadly storms and typhoons this year. Chongqing suffered from the strongest rainstorm in 115 years following a severe drought in 2006. The Huai River Valley saw the second strongest flood since 1949. Quite a number of Chinese cities had to deal with suffocating heat last summer.