Updated: 25-12-2023
Source: China Meteorological News Press
In the summer of 1972, a rare hailstorm flattened tens of thousands of acres of promising wheat fields in northern China, leaving LEI Yushun deeply saddened.
After graduating from the Department of Technical Physics, Peking University in 1965, LEI went into the field of meteorology, and later became the deputy director and associate researcher of the Weather Research Office at the Academy of Meteorological Sciences, China Meteorological Administration. Perhaps as suggested by his name(in Chinese LEI means thunderstorm, Yu means rain), unraveling the "temperament" of severe weather like thunderstorm and heavy rain truly became his lifelong endeavor.
At the time of the hailstorm, China did not have the capability to forecast the phenomenon. "Hail is a disaster, which was difficult to study in the past, and little research has been done. Since others rarely do it, let's do it." With this said, LEI looked up a large amount of domestic and foreign reference material, and filled out more than 2,300 cards,determined to find out a hail forecasting method suitable for China.
With a large amount ofcollectedinformation, LEI authored a monograph entitled AnIntroduction to Hail to officially unveil the "mystery" of the phenomenon,acontributiontoitsglobal research as well.
In August 1975, a heavy rainstorm raided Henan, causing billions of RMB of economic losses. As a meteorologist, LEI felt painful and guilty, but more resolved to find an effective method for forecasting heavy rain.
Alongside his colleagues, he explored a new method for forecasting rainstorm by starting with a study of the total energy stored in the atmosphere and of the theory of atmospheric instability. From July 30 to August 5, 1975, they calculated ground energy using surface weather maps of Henan. With one map taking one hour, the calculation consumed a considerable amount of effort. After several years of arduous exploration, he and hiscolleaguesdeveloped a set of physical quantity charts as a new method for rainstorm forecasting, the practicalapplication of which did improve the accuracy of such forecasts, earning him the National Science Conference Award in 1978.
To develop this unique Chinese forecasting method, LEI was making every minute count. He always said, "I lack nothing except time." He often arrived at the office at 6 a.m. and stayed there until well past midnight, a behavior that was mistaken for forgetting to turn off the lights. To save time, he often took a night train to a province outside Beijing to explain how to integrate operation and technology, helping local staffin their competence, with his footprints found in 22 regions for this purpose.
In October 1982, during the annual meeting of the Chinese Meteorological Society (CMS) in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, LEI suddenly fell in a faint. After being taken to the hospital, he was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. When his condition slightly improved, he began to develop a research plan for Synoptic Dynamics based Analysis of Extremely Heavy Rains.On his deathbed, he had his wife hold a recorder for his last words uttered for ten minutes,valuable suggestions on where the meteorological research should go, how it be done, and what training be offered.
Editor: WU Peng, JIANG Zhiqing