Widespread water deficits may persist in North China including the North China Plain and Mongolia, as seen in the 12-month composite map for August 2015 through July 2016 (below), with some areas experiencing both deficits and surpluses.

Widespread surpluses are forecast for Southeast China, which may be of exceptional severity in Fujian, along the Pearl River (Zhujiang), and at the conjoined borders of Guizhou, Hunan, and Guangxi. Surpluses may also persist in North Korea.

Rare winter floods in China affected 253,000 people in Hunan in what was described by the Hunan Provincial Commission for Disaster Reduction as the most severe winter flooding since 1961. Flooding resulted in economic losses totaling US$63 million, damaging over 19,000 hectares of farmland and forcing relocation of nearly 11,000 residents. In Zhejiang province, 25 people died in landslides caused by flooding. First drought, then floods have reduced vegetable harvests in North Korea, threatening a shortage of the national dish - kimchi.

Deficits in the North as well as surpluses in the South are forecast to diminish in severity in the latter part of the forecast period, as seen in the 3-month composites (below) for the same 12-month period. Likewise, the drought in South Korea – which has been persistent, exceptional, and widespread – is expected to diminish.