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Typhoon Knocks Out Power to Some Homes in Shanghai as It Weakens Inland

A public employee works on a flooded street as heavy wind and rain from Typhoon Bebinca hit Shanghai, China, 16 September 2024. (EPA)
A public employee works on a flooded street as heavy wind and rain from Typhoon Bebinca hit Shanghai, China, 16 September 2024. (EPA)
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Typhoon Knocks Out Power to Some Homes in Shanghai as It Weakens Inland

A public employee works on a flooded street as heavy wind and rain from Typhoon Bebinca hit Shanghai, China, 16 September 2024. (EPA)
A public employee works on a flooded street as heavy wind and rain from Typhoon Bebinca hit Shanghai, China, 16 September 2024. (EPA)

The strongest typhoon to hit Shanghai since at least 1949 knocked out power to some homes and injured at least one person as it swept over the financial hub Monday.

More than 414,000 people had been evacuated by Monday ahead of the powerful winds and torrential rain. Schools were closed and people were advised to stay indoors. More than 60,000 emergency responders and firefighters were at hand to lend aid in Shanghai, according to state media.

Flights, ferries and train services were suspended in Shanghai and in neighboring provinces, disrupting travel during China’s three-day Mid-Autumn Festival. Shanghai’s airports canceled more than 1,400 flights starting Sunday and through Monday, while in Hangzhou, about 170 kilometers (106 miles) southwest of Shanghai, authorities also canceled more than 180 flights.

Typhoon Bebinca made landfall around 7:30 a.m. in the sprawling Pudong business district with winds of 151 kph (94 mph) near its center. It weakened as it moved inland, dousing parts of Jiangsu, Anhui and Zhejiang provinces.

The winds uprooted or damaged more than 10,000 trees, knocked out power for at least 380 households, damaged four houses and injured at least one person, according to state media reports. It was unclear how or where the person was injured.

At least 53 hectares (132 acres) of farmland were flooded.

Weather authorities expected Shanghai and parts of neighboring provinces to receive up to 30 centimeters (12 inches) of rainfall between Monday and Wednesday.

Shanghai, which has 25 million people, is rarely hit by strong typhoons, which usually make landfall further south in China.

Typhoon Yagi hit China’s southern Hainan island earlier this month and has caused devastation in Southeast Asia. In Myanmar, Yagi caused at least 74 deaths with dozens missing. Four deaths were reported in Hainan, at least 10 have died in Thailand and 20 in the Philippines.

Vietnam has reported more than 230 people killed in the typhoon and subsequent flooding and landslides, with dozens more still missing.

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Fire Tornadoes are a Risk Under California's Extreme Wildfire Conditions

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
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Fire Tornadoes are a Risk Under California's Extreme Wildfire Conditions

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP

As if they aren’t already facing enough, firefighters in California also could encounter fire tornadoes — a rare but dangerous phenomenon in which wildfires create their own weather.

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” in which any new fire could explode in size. The advisory, which runs into Wednesday, didn’t mention tornadoes, but meteorologist Todd Hall said they're possible given the extreme conditions.

A look at fire tornadoes according to The AP.

What is a fire tornado? Fire whirl, fire devil, fire tornado or even firenado — scientists, firefighters and regular folks use multiple terms to describe similar phenomena, and they don’t always agree on what’s what. Some say fire whirls are formed only by heat, while fire tornadoes involve clouds generated by the fire itself.

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s glossary of wildland fire terms doesn’t include an entry for fire tornado, but it defines a fire whirl as a “spinning vortex column of ascending hot air and gases rising from a fire and carrying aloft smoke, debris and flame,” and says large whirls “have the intensity of a small tornado.”

Wildfires with turbulent plumes can produce clouds that in turn can produce lightning or a vortex of ash, smoke and flames, said Leila Carvalho, professor of meteorology and climatology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“There is a rotation caused by very strong wind shear and a very hot, localized low-pressure system,” she said.

What is a fire tornado capable of? Fire tornadoes can make fires stronger by sucking up air, Carvalho said. “It creates a tornado track, and wherever this goes, the destruction is like any other tornado.”

In 2018, a fire tornado the size of three football fields killed a firefighter as it exploded in what already was a vast and devastating wildfire near near Redding, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of San Francisco in northern California. Scientists later described an ice-capped cloud that reached 7 miles (11 km) into the air and caused winds up to 143 mph (230 kph).

Research also suggests fire tornadoes can carry airborne embers, also called firebrands, over long distances, said James Urban, an assistant professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They also can change the fire’s behavior, he said.

“That’s also something that is dangerous and scary for first responders, or really anyone,” he said. “It can change and maybe go in a different direction.”

The interaction between wind, the fire plume and topography determines whether a tornado will develop, he said. For example, sometimes a certain topography will restrict airflow in such a way that a spiral pattern develops.

Can you make one in a lab? Together with San José State University, Worcester Polytech is part of a Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center. In the lab in Worcester, researchers have created small fire tornadoes by putting up walls around a fire or arranging a bunch of little fires that together restrict airflow. But that’s on a much smaller scale than what’s happening with the wildfires.

“We’ve got the biggest fire lab in the US for a university, but we cannot get something the size of what’s been reported at these fires,” he said. “You can’t really bottle that and put it in a lab.”