China: Typhoon Doksuri puts Beijing and several regions on red alert

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: CFOTO / NURPHOTO / NURPHOTO VIA AFP 15:00 pm, July 29, 2023

China on Saturday placed part of the country on red alert including Beijing and its region in anticipation of torrential rains, in the wake of Typhoon Doksuri that raged at the other end of the country. Doksuri, which has been sweeping southeast China since Friday, is moving north where its "influence" is already being felt, according to China's weather service. The red alert, in effect from 20:00 local time (12:00 GMT), includes a vast area of several hundred million inhabitants, which includes Beijing, the neighboring metropolis of Tianjin, the neighboring provinces of Hebei (north) and Shandong (east) as well as part of Henan (center) and Shanxi (north).

This is the first time since 2011 that such a heavy rain alert has been triggered, according to local media. More than 60 cm of precipitation could fall locally, the weather service warned. In Beijing, several emblematic parks of the city, lakes and riverbank lanes were closed Saturday for fear of flooding, the municipality said. On Saturday afternoon, heavy downpours briefly fell on several districts of Beijing. According to local media, the rains expected in the coming hours could be even heavier than those of July 2012, which killed 79 people in historic floods.

Uprooted trees, muddy water

These bad weather come at a time when on the other side of the country Typhoon Doksuri continues to progress. It caused significant material damage on Friday in the south-east of the country, with gusts of up to 175km / h. Its intensity has since declined. National television showed images of trees strewn on the roads, while residential areas were surrounded by large bodies of muddy water. In Fuzhou (southeast), authorities on Saturday ordered residents to leave their homes only when necessary.

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Public transport has also been suspended in this city opposite Taiwan. China has been facing extreme weather and locally unusual temperatures in recent months, exacerbated by climate change, scientists say. At the beginning of July, Beijing and its region had broken temperature records with locally more than 40 ° C. Extreme weather events (cyclones, heat waves, floods, droughts, etc.) are natural phenomena. But global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activities is increasing their magnitude and/or frequency, experts say.