China issues emergency alert for 15 provinces as deadly floods move north

Suizhou had issued a red rain warning, the highest level of a four-level warning system, and recorded up to 150 mm (nearly 6 inches) of rain that day, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

The city of Xiangyang, also in Hubei, issued no fewer than seven red severe weather warnings on Sunday as water levels in 268 reservoirs exceeded the upper limit, local authorities said.

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China’s Yangtze River will overflow its banks for the first time in 2024; some areas will be hit hardest by flooding in 25 years

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The China Meteorological Administration on Tuesday activated emergency response level 2 for rainstorms for provinces including Henan, eastern Shandong and southwest Sichuan, the second-highest alert level in a four-level system.

The Chinese term for the month-long flood season is qi xia ba shang, i.e. the end of July and the beginning of August.

As the main rain belt shifts northward, regions such as the Sichuan Basin and the “Huanghuai area” between the Yellow River and the Huai River will experience persistent and extreme rainfall, raising the risk of flooding, “landscape floods” and urban waterlogging, the conference said.

Meanwhile, large parts of Henan, a major grain-producing province hit by drought between April and June, were affected by flooding caused by an “extremely heavy downpour” on Tuesday.

According to the National Meteorological Center, nine weather stations in Henan recorded the highest rainfall in the country in the 24 hours up to Tuesday noon.

According to CCTV, Sheqi County tops the list with over 600mm of rain.

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In China, precipitation is divided into three categories, with 250 mm or more being considered heavy rain.

According to a forecast by the Ministry of Water Resources, flooding in the Hai River basin could affect seven provincial-level areas, including the capital Beijing.

It was also warned that all river basins are at risk of extreme flooding due to climate change.

“The suddenness, severity and abnormality of heavy rains, floods and droughts have become more and more obvious,” Yao Wenguang, director of the ministry’s flood and drought disaster prevention department, said on Sunday.

In China, record floods and many deaths occurred during the main rainy season in recent years.

Nearly 400 people died in the floods in Henan in the summer of 2021. The maximum daily rainfall was almost equal to the average annual rainfall.

Last year, Beijing experienced the heaviest rainfall in over a century, accompanied by flooding in the Hai River basin.