Since Saturday, China has experienced torrential rainfall brought on by Tropical Storm Doksuri

TOPLINE: According to Chinese authorities, the recent torrential rains in Beijing are the city’s worst downpour in the past 140 years. This latest extreme weather phenomenon has been observed across the northern hemisphere in recent weeks.

TOPIC FACTS

The Beijing Meteorological Bureau reports that since Saturday, the Chinese capital has received 744.8 millimetres (29.3 inches) of rain.

The bureau claimed in a post on Weibo that this is the greatest rainfall Beijing has seen since at least July 1883, when the city started maintaining records of the amount of precipitation measured by equipment.

At least 20 people have died as a result of the terrible flooding that the torrential rains have created in the area, and numerous others are still missing.

Typhoon Doksuri’s leftovers, which last week pounded the country’s southeast, are to blame for the intense rain.

Rescue efforts are currently concentrated in the city of Zhuozhou, where more than 125,000 people have been evacuated. Outside the capital region, the neighbouring province of Heibei has taken the brunt of the flooding.

Less than ten days after another storm, Typhoon Talim, made landfall in the same area, China’s southeast coast was hit by Typhoon Doksuri, the remains of which brought significant rains to Beijing. Before the typhoon hit, the Guangdong province of China had to evacuate some 230,000 people.

 

China’s hardest-hit regions

 

Zhuozhou is the most severely affected city in Western China. It is situated in the southwest-adjacent Hebei province of Beijing. Police there asked for lights on social media on Tuesday night to help in rescue efforts. The number of people trapped in flood-affected sections of the city and its neighbouring communities is still not known with certainty.

 

What TO look out for

China will be preparing for the arrival of a third typhoon, Khanun, which may strike the country’s northeast coast later on Wednesday, even as it works to recover from two back-to-back typhoons.

 

IMPORTANT HORIZONS

China was experiencing a severe heatwave before the most recent storms. The country’s highest temperature ever was 126 degrees Fahrenheit, which was recorded in a remote town in China’s Xinjiang province last month. In what scientists predict will be the hottest July ever, other regions of the northern hemisphere, such as North America and Europe, experienced a heat wave that broke all previous records. Last month, a group of researchers from various countries produced an analysis that concluded that such a severe global heat wave would be “virtually unavoidable” without climatic change caused by humans. The experts also issued a warning that future Julys would see more frequent occurrences of such severe heat.

 

The worst is still to come

Typhoon Doksuri’s record rainfall may not be the last. Later this week, typhoon Khanun, which was pounding Japan on Wednesday, is anticipated to move towards China. The strong storm can affect Taiwan before it reaches Taiwan and has surface winds of up to 180 mph. There is a risk that the typhoon will break China’s and Taiwan’s rainfall records.

Numerous thousands of people were relocated to shelters in public buildings, including schools and stadiums, in Beijing’s suburbs and other surrounding towns. 44 million yuan ($6.1 million) has been allocated by the central government for disaster aid in the impacted provinces.

Beijing typically has dry summers, but this year there was a period of extreme heat. Since the previous week, the city has experienced record-breaking rainfall.