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06-07-2025
BEIJING/ LANZHOU: Northern and western China remain on high alert as torrential rain threatens to bring more flash flooding and landslides, following weather-related deaths in other parts of the country.
Red alerts were in force on Thursday as rains made their way to Gansu province in the northwest and then up to Liaoning province in the northeast.
The weather warnings came as more than 1,000 rescue workers were sent on Wednesday to Taiping, a town in the central Henan province, where five people died and three were declared missing after a river burst its banks, according to state media.
Another state media report confirmed that two people were killed by a landslide at a construction site in Gansu after heavy rain on Wednesday and Thursday.
Meanwhile, a record summer downpour hit the city of Xianfeng in China’s central province of Hubei, bringing more than a month’s rain in just 12 hours, with local videos showing torrents washing away cars.
On Tuesday, the authorities there evacuated 18,000 people, closed schools and suspended bus services.
During a two-day trip to the northern province of Hebei, China’s Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing urged local officials to ramp up the scale of evacuations.
Although China has a nationwide system to forecast and monitor severe weather, scientists say it is hard to make localized predictions, especially in rural communities that lack forecasting capabilities.
“Accurately forecasting the intensity and exact location of heavy rain remains challenging, especially with climate change and the complex terrain of rural areas,” Meng GAO, a climate modelling specialist at Hong Kong Baptist University, told media earlier this week.
Last July, the “plum rains”, which coincide with the plum-ripening season, caused more than $10bn in economic losses in China.
Most-severe weather and geological disaster warnings were issued in northwest China’s Gansu Province on Friday as the region continued to be battered by intense rainfall, raising the risk of geological disasters and flash floods.
A red alert for weather-induced geological disasters was jointly issued by the provincial department of natural resources and the provincial meteorological bureau on Friday afternoon, warning of a high possibility of geological hazards such as landslides, soil collapses and mudslides.
Earlier the same day, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters issued two separate red alerts for flash flood.
Rainfall totals are forecast to reach 100 to 180 millimeters by 11pm Friday with the heaviest hourly downpours expected to range from 30 to 70 millimeters.
Due to the heavy rainfall, Maijishan scenic area in Tianshui, home to the UNESCO-listed Maijishan Grottoes, has been temporarily closed to visitors since Thursday morning, according to local authorities.
China has a four-tier weather warning system, with red representing the most severe warning, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
As continuous rainfall affects a vast expanse of areas across China, a total of 329 rivers reported water levels exceeding flood control alert levels as of 8 am Friday, said Chen Min, vice-minister of water resources.
“This year’s flood season is characterized by regional and sequential occurrences of droughts and flood disasters,” Chen told a news conference, adding that extreme heavy downpours have led to disasters such as mountain floods, landslides and urban waterlogging while the country is entering the main flood season. (Int’l News Desk)
