Climate

Dali prefecture is located at the intersection of Yungui Plateau and Hengduan Mountain, higher in the northwest and lower in the southeast. Its geographic configuration is quite complicated and diversified. West of Cangshan is of high mountains and gorges; the area that is east to Cangshan and west to Xiangyun is of middle height mountains and steep slopes; to the north of Cangshan is Xueban Mountain, the highest peak of the state with an altitude of 4295m, lying at the intersection of Jianchuan and Lanping (in Lijiang); the lowest point of the state is Hongqi dam on Nujiang River, Yulong county, with an altitude of 730m. There are many lakes and basin areas in the state with an area of 1871.49 k㎡, taking up 6.6% of the state’s total area. The amount of rivers reaches more than160, including the four main water systems of Jinsha River, Lancang River, Nujiang River, and Honghe River. There are eight lakes lying inside the state, such as Erhai Lake, Tianchi Lake, and so on.

Decided by the geographical conditions, a monsoon climate is formed in this plateau of low latitude. The climate features are as follows:
(1): temperature changes a little all year round.
(2): clear division of dry season and wet season
(3): apparent climate differences between different vertical heights
(4): many meteorologic calamities, such as drought, low temperature, flood, frost, hail, gale, and so on