The centre of Typhoon Bai Hai Tun, this year's thirteenth and now at tropical storm strength, was over Anqing in Anhui province at 05:00 on Tuesday, with maximum winds on its outer edge of force 8, or 20 metres per second, according to the China Meteorological Administration. It was expected to move west-northwest at 15 to 20 kilometres an hour and weaken as it went.
The administration is running a level-two emergency response for typhoon, rainstorm and severe convective weather. A blue typhoon warning was still in force at 06:00 on Tuesday, alongside an orange rainstorm warning and a blue severe convection warning.
Winds of force 6 to 8, gusting 9 to 10, were forecast between Tuesday and Wednesday morning across the southern Yellow Sea, the western East China Sea and waters near the Diaoyu Islands, the sea east of Taiwan, the Bashi Channel, the Yangtze estuary, Hangzhou Bay and the coasts of Jiangsu, Shanghai, north-eastern Zhejiang and Taiwan. Winds in the Yangtze estuary were expected to reach force 9, gusting 10 to 11.
Heavy rain was forecast over three days across eastern Zhejiang, western and southern Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, northern Hunan, Henan, western Shandong, central and southern Hebei, south-eastern Shanxi, central and southern Beijing and central-western Inner Mongolia, as the typhoon's remnant circulation met a westerly trough and cold air. Accumulated rainfall of 100 to 200 millimetres was expected in parts of that area, 300 to 400 millimetres in parts of Henan and western Shandong, and more than 500 millimetres at isolated points.
Thunderstorm gusts above force 8 or hail were forecast for parts of central and eastern Inner Mongolia, the eastern north-west, the western north-east and several central provinces, with gusts above force 10 in places — up to force 11 or more — and the administration did not rule out tornadoes in isolated spots.
Why it is on the board
It was on both Chinese lists we read, Weibo's hot search and Baidu's, on Tuesday.
Sourced from 新浪, carrying a China Meteorological Administration bulletin, and 中国新闻网.