Beijing - As the authorities in Beijing withdrew the flood alert on Wednesday morning, a somber reality emerged: the city had encountered its most intense rainfall in 140 years, claiming the lives of 21 individuals across the region and leaving dozens more unaccounted for.
Reports indicate that nearly one million people have been evacuated from the affected areas. Rescue and recovery teams have been navigating inundated streets in rubber dinghies, relentlessly searching for those potentially trapped behind. The two major airports in the city suffered disruptions, with hundreds of flights either delayed or canceled.
China has been grappling with a series of severe weather events, ranging from scorching heatwaves to deadly rainstorms, in recent months. In July, sweltering temperatures prompted a directive for employers across the country to curtail outdoor work. The Beijing meteorological service disclosed that a staggering 744.8mm of rain had descended since the previous Saturday, smashing the previous record of 609mm established in 1891.
This quantum of rainfall approximates what Beijing typically receives throughout the entire month of July. The situation was even direr in the neighboring Hebei province. Over the span of Saturday to Monday, a local weather station documented a jaw-dropping 1,003mm of rainfall, nearly twice the annual average.
Video courtesy : The Guardian
Chinese meteorologists attribute the deluge to the aftermath of Storm Doksuri, a former super typhoon that surged northwards through China after striking Fujian province in the south the previous week.
As the residual influence of Doksuri's rain clouds drifted north, a conjunction of atmospheric elements — a subtropical and continental high-pressure system — impeded their northward and eastward progression, effectively forming a reservoir of water vapor.
Subsequently, as millions of tons of water accumulated within the clouds over northern China, a low-altitude wind lifted them upward, directing the rainfall eastward of the Taihang mountains. This mechanism targeted the most severely impacted areas, including Beijing's Fangshan and Mentougou districts.
Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, highlighted that while the typhoon played a role in the excessive rain, the rising ocean temperatures attributed to climate change were also compounding the extremity of the weather conditions.