What is the plum rain season? 

The season of the plum rains or, misleadingly, intermittent drizzle, is a special meteorological phenomenon of the middle and lowland areas of the Yangtze River. Usually, the plum rain season starts in the middle of June and ends in early July, lasting for about 20 days.

Japanese and Korean people are also familiar with this regular rainy season. Japanese and Chinese characters for the plum rains are identical.

The climate during this season is characterized by continuous rain and hot temperatures.

Precipitation during the rainy season averages about 200mm in Shanghai, about one fifth of the annual total. But not all the plum rain seasons have a lot of precipitation.

During dry years there is very little rain and sometimes drought. For example, last year during this period precipitation amounted to only 70 mm.

In some years the season brings abundant rainfall, which has sometimes caused disastrous floods.

Due to the rains, the humidity runs between 80 and 90 per cent. At the same time, the air temperature is very high, ranging from 20 to 34 degrees centigrade.

The air flows very slowly during this period, which makes the weather stuffy.

Where does the name come from?

Many people do not understand why this uncomfortable season is named after a fruit. The ancient Chinese timed the arrival of the season by the growth of the plum.

Usually, the rainy season begins in early summer when the plums are ripe, and lasts about three weeks. There is an old saying about the rainy season: "When the rain falls on the ripe plums, there follows 40 rainy days".