Meteorological services facilitate spring tea harvest across China

Villagers pick spring tea leaves in Erlang village, Sanhe township, Bishan district, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. (Photo courtesy of the China Meteorological Administration)

As spring tea is entering the peak picking season in multiple regions across China, meteorological departments have spared no effort in providing services.

"From planting to growth, every stage of growing tea trees is inseparable from the weather and climate, especially temperature, which can directly impact the quality of the tea leaves," said an official from the China Meteorological Administration.

The meteorological bureau of Ba'nan district in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality installed a small weather station at a local tea garden in 2010. Since then, the meteorological bureau has advanced the construction of a network of tea observation stations. Field microclimate stations have been established to observe factors like the growth period of tea plants, pest and disease conditions, and soil moisture.

Jin Zhifeng, a senior engineer at the Zhejiang Provincial Meteorological Bureau, said efforts will be made to continue improving models and accumulating more data, hoping to apply AI-based forecasting models to more tea gardens in the future for more accurate predictions and targeted services.