China’s strongest typhoon of the year, Typhoon Dolphin, unleashed torrential rains across wide swathes of the country this week, setting single-day August precipitation records in central provinces, flooding major roadways in Beijing, and disrupting travel and work for residents.
The remnants of Typhoon Dolphin drove tropical moisture deep inland after making landfall on Sunday in the eastern province of Zhejiang, threatening severe flooding and travel disruptions far from the coast. State media reported that the storm travelled over 6,000 km (3,700 miles) before striking land, bringing severe weather to regions already contending with widespread high temperatures exceeding 38 degrees Celsius in central and eastern regions.
Typhoon Dolphin Remnants Soak Beijing and Central Provinces
In Beijing, authorities declared their second-highest rainstorm warning as intense downpours battered the capital, turning multi-lane roadways into virtual rivers and stranding vehicles. The official Xinhua news agency reported that the city suspended 250 bus routes, shut down 150 tourist attractions, and ran 10 subway lines at reduced speeds. Video images on China’s Rednote showed cars and buses partially submerged in city streets.
The capital’s northern district of Changping recorded the highest hourly rainfall on Wednesday, receiving 90.7 mm (3.6 inches) within an hour after 9 a.m. This followed heavy rainfall warnings issued earlier by multiple districts including Dongcheng, Xicheng, Haidian, Chaoyang, Tongzhou, and Pinggu, where precipitation was expected to exceed 50 millimeters. Miyun district in northeast Beijing reached 99.5 millimeters of precipitation on Friday afternoon, prompting authorities to deploy more than 2,000 staff to help with the flooding around Beijing.
Record-Breaking Rainfall and Infrastructure Disruption
Farther inland, state media said rainfall records were shattered in parts of Zhejiang and the central provinces of Henan and Hubei this week. Records for a single day of rain in August were smashed in the city of Wugang, home to one of China’s largest steel companies, which received 209.5 mm (8.2 inches) of rain, while Xiangyang received 169.1 mm. In the coastal city of Yuhuan in Zhejiang, nearly 200 mm (8 inches) of rain submerged nearby streets, forcing scores of cars to crowd a bridge that stayed above the encroaching floods, as verified by Reuters through social media footage.
The extreme weather also struck the northwestern province of Shaanxi, where heavy rains and floods on Thursday collapsed roads, damaged bridges, and power and communications infrastructure, prompting the evacuation of thousands of people. Meanwhile, China’s eastern and southern provinces had prepared for Dolphin by suspending ferry routes, halting construction, and evacuating fishing boats.
The most troublesome part is that it affects work and life. It’s very inconvenient for food and transport. Zhao Junxia, Luohe resident
In the central province of Henan, residents took proactive measures as people in northern and central regions geared up for more days of rain from the remnants of the storm’s vast rain bands. Zhao Junxia, a 32-year-old resident of Luohe who hosts short videos on Douyin (China’s equivalent of TikTok), moved her car 2 km (1.2 miles) away to higher ground ahead of the rain to avoid a repeat of past experiences where waterlogging near her apartment proved particularly serious.
Economic Toll and Future Resilience Efforts
Each year, extreme rainfall causes billions of dollars in economic losses across the world’s second-largest economy as manufacturing is disrupted and crops are washed away. Scientists link these destructive weather patterns to climate change, especially this year, as an emerging El Niño pattern boosts temperatures and fuels more frequent and intense typhoons.
To bolster traditional forecasting systems and beef up resilience to extreme weather, Chinese meteorologists are reaching for a new generation of artificial intelligence weather models. As northern and central regions prepare for further downpours, authorities remain engaged in managing the aftermath of the storm’s deep inland march.
