Beijing: Heaviest Rain in 70 Years Causes Severe Floods

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Facts

  • Remnants of Typhoon Doksuri made landfall in China, bringing torrential rain triggering landslides, and flooding to parts of northern provinces. Heavy rains caused the worst flooding in Beijing for a decade, which swept away cars, destroyed roads, and knocked out power.1
  • The downpours claimed dozens of lives and triggered the evacuation of more than 52K per official state media.2
  • This has been noted as Beijing's heaviest rainfall in 70 years as search and rescue operations continue.3
  • Beijing usually has dry summers, and earlier this summer it experienced a stretch of record-breaking heat, and the flooding has caught taken the capital by surprise. The heavy rains have forced thousands of people to evacuate to shelters in outlying areas of Beijing and the municipalities of Tianjin and Zhuozhou.4
  • The Beijing government warned that there is a high risk of flash floods and mudslides as the rainfall continues across the city.5
  • South of Beijing, in the Hebei province, precipitation that fell over three days was greater than six months' worth of rain. The total rainfall was over 1K mm (3.3 feet).6

Sources: 1CNN, 2Guardian, 3South China Morning Post, 4Associated Press, 5New York Times, and 6Metro.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Washington Post. Climate change has exacerbated the severity of extreme weather in China. Typhoon Doksuri, which is considered one of the most formidable storms to strike the PRC in recent years, came after record heat waves in the country's northern provinces this summer. And more is on its way, forecasters have warned that a second storm — Typhoon Khanun — will hit China later this week. This rising superpower is on the front lines of a climate crisis.
  • Narrative B, as provided by China Dialogue. China's central government simply has not done enough to combat climate change. Currently, the PRC's climate adaptation policy focuses at the provincial level. City and community-level policy hasn't caught up yet. In 2035, a more comprehensive National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy will be in place but, until then, there are major gaps in the system.

Predictions