Torrential rains displace thousands from homes

In Henan province, 66 of its 157 county-level areas were pummeled by heavy rainfall from 8 am Sunday to 7 am Monday, and 26 of them received more than 100 mm of precipitation. Downpours continued in many of the counties till Tuesday morning, local authorities said.

In Queshan county in the province, a car with five passengers was washed away by floods when it was passing a bridge on Monday evening. One of the passengers was saved, but the other four remain missing, according to media reports.

Many other regions were expected to experience torrential rains from Tuesday to Wednesday, according to the National Meteorological Center.

On Tuesday, the center renewed a blue alert for downpours, warning of maximum hourly precipitation of 20 to 50 mm in parts of the Inner Mongolia and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regions, and Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces in the 24 hours starting 2 pm on Tuesday.

Precipitation in northern Liaoning may even reach 100 to 120 mm, the center said, adding that some areas in these regions may be hit by severe convective weather — a sudden and destructive weather phenomenon that often includes thunderstorms, hail, gales and heavy rain.

Sometimes spanning only 10 kilometers, such events can produce intense precipitation.

In contrast, a light rain that lasted from Monday night to Tuesday morning allowed Beijing to have some respite from heat waves with temperatures above 35 C. The capital, however, is forecast to be enveloped by sweltering heat with temperatures up to 38 C once again from Wednesday to Thursday.

According to the National Climate Center, the number of days with temperatures above 35 C in June in Beijing outpaced the same month in all other years since 1961.A tour guide was reported to have died of heatstroke in the capital on Sunday at the Summer Palace, as the scorching heat wave lingered in the city.

The Ministry of Emergency Management has warned of a grim situation for flood control and drought relief this month.

The precipitation in central and eastern parts of Northeast China, the northern part of Central China, and western part of Southwest China will receive more precipitation than the yearly average in July, it said.

It forecast floods in parts of the country's two longest watercourses — the Yangtze and the Yellow — and in some sections of Qiantang and Songhua rivers. Torrential rains may raise water levels in these rivers above their warning marks, it said.

It said higher temperatures and less precipitation are expected in many other areas, including the northern part of North China and some areas in Inner Mongolia.

"The supply of water and power will be relatively tight in these regions," it noted.

houliqiang@chinadaily.com.cn