China's climate allows for a large variability around both mean temperature and mean precipitation levels. While areas in China north of the Yangtze River generally are prone to extremely cold winters and somewhat milder summers, the central region around the Yangtze River Valley has long hot summers with very high precipitation levels due to both monsoons and typhoons. Equally distinct climate and weather patterns characterize both the southern and northwestern regions of China making extreme events such as floods, monsoons, droughts and snowstorms all relevant features of China's overall climate. A monsoon is any type of major wind system that seasonally changes direction. The summer monsoon winds bring moisture to a region while winter monsoons bring drought.
China is affected by the summer monsoon currents.
This particular monsoon, is a source of much needed rain for China's limited, arable land, yet simultaneously has been the cause of devastating flooding in the Yangtze and Yellow River Valleys. In spite of the frequent historical record of climactic events such as monsoons, floods and also typhoons in China, the recent intensity and regularity of such extreme events has been attributed to both global warming trends and rapid increase in carbon dioxide emission. Some scientists believe that in a warmer climate the earth can be expected to experience more variable weather than now, with a likelihood of more floods and drought, more intense hurricanes or typhoons, and more heat waves. El Nino events have been known to bring catastrophic events. El Nino events typically occur at three to four year intervals, however they are not always predictable.