Abstract: The total kinetic energy budgets of an intense convection event occurred on the 1st March 1983 over the Pearl River delta in South China have been diagnostically studied in this paper by the use of operational observation data. The results show that the generation term is, for the time-area mean,a dominant source; The divergence of horizontal energy flux and sub-grid processes act as major sinks in the total energy balance. Almost all major budget terms peak their values in the upper tropospheric layer in which the high level southwesterly jet is located. It is also observed that a certain amount of kinetic energy is transported upwards from middle and lower layers to the upper troposphere by resolvable scale vertical motion and downwards by sub-grid processes. Major budget terms show substantial changes in value before and after the peak storm activity.