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China Hit by Rare Union of Record Rainfall, Heatwaves and a Tornado

A resident is seen on a road damaged by floodwaters following heavy rainfall in Gongyi city, Henan province, China July 22, 2021. (Reuters)
A resident is seen on a road damaged by floodwaters following heavy rainfall in Gongyi city, Henan province, China July 22, 2021. (Reuters)
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China Hit by Rare Union of Record Rainfall, Heatwaves and a Tornado

A resident is seen on a road damaged by floodwaters following heavy rainfall in Gongyi city, Henan province, China July 22, 2021. (Reuters)
A resident is seen on a road damaged by floodwaters following heavy rainfall in Gongyi city, Henan province, China July 22, 2021. (Reuters)

A rare convergence in China of record rainfall, heatwaves and a tornado hitting the southern megacity of Guangzhou this week displaced millions of people, damaged properties and swamped farmland.

Southern China is expected to see torrential rains until Tuesday, Chinese state television reported on Friday, with no immediate reprieve to the vast and populous region inundated by downpours in the past week.

Authorities issued warnings of "extreme weather events" as early as April, ahead of the rainy season that signals seasonal transition from spring to summer in June.

China is historically prone to floods. In recent times, it has grown even more vulnerable due to deforestation, the reclamation of wetlands and the storage of water for power generation and irrigation.

China also blames climate change for the increase in extreme weather events as rainfall and temperatures reach new highs.

"Climate change has already brought serious adverse impacts to China's natural ecological system, and has continued to spread and penetrate into economy and society," the government said in its national climate change adaptation strategy published on Monday.

Late Thursday, a tornado ripped through parts of Guangzhou during a heavy rainstorm, local media reported, cutting off power supply to over 5,400 users in the sprawling southern city.

Local media in Guangzhou reported dangerous water levels with high waves in the broader Pearl River Basin, prompting the central government to dispatch flood prevention workers.

An observation site in the city recorded a 2.45-meter (six feet) high wave on Tuesday, the highest in 20 years.

The weather bureau in nearby Fujian province on Thursday warned that recent record-breaking rainfall would persist into next week, posing high risk of natural disasters.

Disaster warnings sent out by other provinces this week have prompted emergency relief efforts as city streets lay submerged in water, highway access was cut off, and acres of farmland was swamped.

Meanwhile, temperatures in central and northern China are expected to hit unusual highs into next week, surpassing 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

The abnormally warm weather has already enveloped the Henan capital of Zhengzhou, which was hit by record rainfall and paralyzed by devastating floods last summer.

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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Climate Change Causing More Change in Rainfall, Fiercer Typhoons, Scientists Say 

People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)
People and vehicles wade through the water along a street that was flooded by Typhoon Gaemi in Kaohsiung on July 25, 2024. (AFP)

Climate change is driving changes in rainfall patterns across the world, scientists said in a paper published on Friday, which could also be intensifying typhoons and other tropical storms.

Taiwan, the Philippines and then China were lashed by the year's most powerful typhoon this week, with schools, businesses and financial markets shut as wind speeds surged up to 227 kph (141 mph). On China's eastern coast, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated ahead of landfall on Thursday.

Stronger tropical storms are part of a wider phenomenon of weather extremes driven by higher temperatures, scientists say.

Researchers led by Zhang Wenxia at the China Academy of Sciences studied historical meteorological data and found about 75% of the world's land area had seen a rise in "precipitation variability" or wider swings between wet and dry weather.

Warming temperatures have enhanced the ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture, which is causing wider fluctuations in rainfall, the researchers said in a paper published by the Science journal.

"(Variability) has increased in most places, including Australia, which means rainier rain periods and drier dry periods," said Steven Sherwood, a scientist at the Climate Change Research Center at the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the study.

"This is going to increase as global warming continues, enhancing the chances of droughts and/or floods."

FEWER, BUT MORE INTENSE, STORMS

Scientists believe that climate change is also reshaping the behavior of tropical storms, including typhoons, making them less frequent but more powerful.

"I believe higher water vapor in the atmosphere is the ultimate cause of all of these tendencies toward more extreme hydrologic phenomena," Sherwood told Reuters.

Typhoon Gaemi, which first made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday, was the strongest to hit the island in eight years.

While it is difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, models predict that global warming makes typhoons stronger, said Sachie Kanada, a researcher at Japan's Nagoya University.

"In general, warmer sea surface temperature is a favorable condition for tropical cyclone development," she said.

In its "blue paper" on climate change published this month, China said the number of typhoons in the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea had declined significantly since the 1990s, but they were getting stronger.

Taiwan also said in its climate change report published in May that climate change was likely to reduce the overall number of typhoons in the region while making each one more intense.

The decrease in the number of typhoons is due to the uneven pattern of ocean warming, with temperatures rising faster in the western Pacific than the east, said Feng Xiangbo, a tropical cyclone research scientist at the University of Reading.

Water vapor capacity in the lower atmosphere is expected to rise by 7% for each 1 degree Celsius increase in temperatures, with tropical cyclone rainfall in the United States surging by as much as 40% for each single degree rise, he said.