Tibetannet

XINING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Qinghai Plateau, the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, saw the warmest spring and highest annual precipitation rate since 1961.

According to the climate center of Qinghai Province, the average annual temperature of the plateau in 2018 was 3.3 degrees Celsius, with the average temperature in the spring reaching a historic high of 4.8 degrees Celsius.

The plateau's average annual precipitation last year was 484 mm, 30 percent more than the average from 1981 to 2010.

Increased rain caused over 100 natural disasters in the eastern and southern part of the province in 2018, leaving seven people killed while causing the highest economic loss in ten years.

The center said in October last year that the average temperature of the plateau had climbed 0.43 degrees Celsius per decade, higher than the average speed of global warming which is 0.12 degrees Celsius per decade. The Qinghai Plateau is home to the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers, and viewed as China's major water conservation and ecological protection area.