BEIJING - The capital's meteorological authority admitted on Saturday that it doesn't have a great record when it comes to predicting rainstorms but insisted the quality of weather forecasting in China in general is pretty good.

Qiao Lin, head of the Beijing meteorological bureau, made the remarks after people criticized the bureau for three inaccurate weather warnings.

Qiao said weather forecasting is a process of gradual correction and China's rain forecast accuracy is about 80 percent. But he admitted that its accuracy level in predicting rainstorms is only 20 percent, which he said was lower than that of developed countries.

The bureau issued a lightning warning and a blue rainstorm warning, which means 50 millimeters of rain was expected to fall within 12 hours, on Friday morning. It also issued a lightning yellow warning later that afternoon. And on Saturday, it issued another rainstorm warning.

However, the rain that fell on the capital was much less than expected and only hit the southern part of the city.

The expected rainstorm was heavy over provinces and municipalities to the south of the capital, including Hebei, Shanxi and Tianjin.

Qiao suggested people wanting greater accuracy should refer to the latest short-range weather forecast or the weather warning service offered through mobile phone texts.