Where did it snow in Xiamen that year?

In some magazines and newspapers in Xiamen, it has been repeatedly claimed that Xiamen has had snowfall several times over the past century. Among these records, there are two times where it is clearly stated that the scope of snowfall was on Xiamen Island: one is "In the 16th year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1751), it snowed in Xiamen and Tong'an"; the other is "January 30, 1941" , there is heavy snowfall in Xiamen city."

To discuss whether it has snowed in Xiamen, we must first determine the scope of "Xiamen". If "Xiamen" refers to Xiamen City including Tong'an County after September 1973, then since Tong'an County is distributed with medium and low mountains and high hills with higher altitudes, and according to the changing pattern of temperature, the altitude changes every day. When the temperature rises 100 meters, the temperature drops by 0.6°C. Therefore, it is not unusual for snow to fall in the Tongan Mountains.

In fact, when people talk about whether it has snowed in Xiamen, the geographical concept of "Xiamen" does not include Tong'an County, but only refers to Xiamen Island. Everyone knows that Xiamen Island is a warm island. According to meteorological standards for dividing four seasons, there is no winter on Xiamen Island. People are interested in whether Xiamen Island, which has no winter, has ever snowed.

So, can the above statement about snow in Xiamen Island stand up to verification?

First, let’s take a look at the first record. This record simply stated at the beginning: It snowed in Xiamen during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. The basis is: At that time, a poet named Zhang Xilin wrote a poem titled "Treading Snow in Nanguan". The author said that Nanguan is Zhennanguan, and there is snow to step on in Zhennanguan, which shows that Xiamen Island has snowed before. Later, someone else verified that Zhang Xilin's "Nanguan Snow" was written in the 16th year of Qianlong's reign, and included the sentence "The snow on Hongshan Mountain was thick last night". Therefore, this record became "In the 16th year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty, it snowed in Xiamen and Tong'an." This statement is really far-fetched.

According to the records in Volume 13 of the Qing Dynasty Daoguang Edition of "Xiamen Chronicles", Zhang Xilin "was named Erfu. He was born in Gongxi, Longxi. After repeated attempts, he failed to sell, so he had no intention of building a house. He indulged in the mountains and rivers to He chanted for his own entertainment. He lived on the two ponds of Lujiang River and was named Chi Shang Weng. He wrote three volumes of "Chi Shang Cao", two volumes of "Singing Poems" and three volumes of "History". "Since Zhang Xilin is a tribute student of Longxi, he has written many times. If you take the scientific examination, you are definitely not a permanent resident of Xiamen. Although the place name "Hongshan" is mentioned in his poems, the place names often have the same phenomenon. Therefore, it is not certain whether this Hongshan is the Hongshan in Xiamen Island. The poem he wrote is titled "Treading Snow at Nanguan", but there is no evidence that "Nanguan" means "Zhennanguan". After consulting the Daoguang edition of Xiamen Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty and the Xiamen City Chronicles of the Republic of China, there is no mention of "Nanguan" as "Zhennanguan", nor is there any record of snow in the explanatory text of Hongshan, where Zhennanguan is located. . To put it bluntly, even if Zhang Xilin's "Nanguan Snow" was really written on Xiamen Island, it is not advisable to rely on literary and artistic works as historical facts. The ancients chanted: "Snowflakes in Yanshan Mountain are as big as mats." If someone claimed based on this poem that "there were snow flakes like straw mats in Yanshan Mountain", it would become a joke. Li Bai has a poem that reads: "The white hair is three thousand feet long." If someone draws the conclusion that "Li Bai's hair is three thousand feet long" based on this poem, wouldn't it be absurd? Therefore, the statement that it snowed on Xiamen Island in the 16th year of Qianlong's reign should be said to lack basis.

The second record is even more sensational. Xiamen Island, which has a warm climate, not only snows, but also "heavy snow". But the verification of this record is not too difficult, because this "weather wonder" appeared on January 30, 1941, only more than 60 years ago. People who are about 80 years old today should not forget this - If the spectacle of "heavy snowfall" really happened on Xiamen Island. However, the author surveyed many elderly people over 75 years old, but no one had seen snowflakes or snow flakes on Xiamen Island.

According to the person who first released this information, this information comes from the Japanese version of the "Important Diary of the Rebirth of Xiamen" compiled and printed by the Japanese during the fall of Xiamen, and is completely reliable. However, the author still does not believe that Xiamen people at that time knew nothing about such a rare phenomenon in Xiamen’s meteorological history. Finally, the author wants to get copies of the original materials and seek advice from comrades who are proficient in Japanese. The results were shocking: the original record was not "heavy snowfall" at all, but "scattered light snowfall for a short period of time at 9 p.m." Translating or writing "short-term sporadic light snow" as "heavy snowfall" makes the phenomenon even more bizarre and the news more sensational, but the scientific spirit of seeking truth from facts is seriously damaged.

To sum up, there has never been any snowy weather like "thick snow flakes" or "flying snow flakes" on Xiamen Island, but when a particularly strong cold current hits, snowy weather such as The "sporadic light snow" recorded in "Rebirth Xiamen Diary". The so-called "scattered light snow" is what Xiamen people call "sleet", "falling snow" and "falling rain and snow". There are several similar records in Xiamen's historical records and related materials. First, the "Xiamen City Chronicles" of the Republic of China records that in November of the 18th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (mid-January 1893), Xiamen Island experienced "rain and snow"; second, on January 22, 1983, Xiamen Island experienced "cold rain and heavy rain. Packed with ice particles." From a meteorological point of view, it is more accurate to call the above phenomenon freezing rain.

The so-called freezing rain is caused by the collision of warm and cold air. When a strong cold wave invades, the air temperature under the front and the ground temperature drop below 0°C, while the temperature above the front remains above 0°C, and there is relatively sufficient moisture.

When water droplets formed from clouds above the front fall into an air layer with a temperature below 0°C, they become supercooled raindrops. Once supercooled raindrops fall on an object with a temperature below 0°C, they immediately freeze into ice. This is freezing rain. According to Xiamen’s meteorological records, the extreme minimum temperature on Xiamen Island is 1.5°C. However, this does not rule out that the temperature in some areas may drop below 0°C within a certain period of time. Therefore, even in Xiamen Island, it is not surprising that freezing rain occurs when a strong cold current hits and there is sufficient water vapor in the sky.

To examine the climate phenomena of a place, the most authoritative information is of course the records of professional meteorological agencies. In the sixth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1880), the Xiamen Customs, controlled by foreigners, established a weather measurement station in Xiamen for business needs. This was the earliest meteorological observation institution in Xiamen. In April 1948, the Xiamen Weather Measurement Institute was established on the basis of the former Xiamen Customs Weather Measurement Institute. The Xiamen Meteorological Station was established in August 1952 and later changed to Xiamen Meteorological Observatory and Xiamen Meteorological Bureau. As of February 2003, no record of snow on Xiamen Island has been found from the available meteorological observation data.

Chapter 5, Section 4 "Cold Damage" of "Fujian Provincial Chronicles and Meteorological Chronicles" (December 1996 edition of Fangzhi Publishing House), whose lower limit of time is 1990, describes the snow situation in Fujian Province as follows: "Falling snow in Fujian is relatively rare...The usual snow area is limited to northern Fujian and rarely extends to the south...The most extensive snow area in the past century occurred on December 11-14, 1975...the province** * A total of 52 counties and cities have experienced snow... The snow area extends to the southeast of Fuqing-Xianyou-Yong'an-Anxi-Hua'an-Yongding line. "The geographical location of Xiamen Island is about 100 kilometers south of the above-mentioned snow area. The probability of snow can be imagined. The author believes that it is extremely appropriate to use this description as a summary of the question "Has it ever snowed on Xiamen Island?"