China experienced the most frequent and severe weather during 2010, compared to weather in other years of the past decade, a weather official said in Beijing Thursday.

Chen Zhenlin, a spokesman with the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), said the numbers of extremely high temperature days and extreme precipitation cases that China experienced in the year were rarely seen in history, as was the intensity and area effected by this weather.

Extreme weather refers to rare weather phenomena that substantially differ from average conditions and which represent only five percent or less of total weather incidents.

According to Chen, China experienced the longest hot spell this year since 1961, as the national average number of days of extremely hot weather climbed to 3.5 days more than the normal level, while the average extreme high temperature reached a historical high not seen since 1961 -- 2 degrees Celsius higher than normal conditions.

Meanwhile, average daily precipitation at China's 97 meteorological stations was the highest ever, and the annual number of extreme precipitation cases was the largest since 1961, he said.

Further, seven tropical cyclones made landfall in southern China this year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 31, 2010)