Blue alert issued for heavy rain

Some areas likely to see over 60 mm in an hour, national observatory warns

The China Meteorological Administration urged local governments and government departments on Sunday to prepare for rainstorms churning toward several provinces and regions in the 24 hours to 2 pm Monday.

The national observatory issued a blue alert, the least severe in the country's four-tier, color-coded weather warning system, on Sunday morning for rainstorms in parts of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Liaoning and Jilin provinces, Beijing, Tianjin, and the Sichuan Basin.

Parts of southwestern and northeastern Beijing, northeastern Hebei and the Sichuan Basin will receive downpours of 100 to 180 millimeters. Some areas are likely to experience over 60 mm of rain in an hour, accompanied by strong convective weather such as thunderstorms and gales, the forecast said.

Local authorities should make efforts to improve drainage of flooded fields in cities and farmland, and prevent possible disasters brought by rainstorms, including mountain torrents, landslides, and mudslides, the administration said.

It also suggested cutting outdoor power supplies in risky areas and suspending outdoor work.

Starting from Saturday, a new round of rainfall moved into northern China as parts of Qinghai and Gansu provinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region saw medium to heavy rainfall, the administration's website said.

The forecast said heavy rain would hit the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region on Sunday, with downpours of 100 to 150 mm then expected to batter northeastern Heilongjiang province, central Jilin province and parts of Liaoning province and Chongqing on Monday.

"The new round of rainfall in the north will proceed swiftly because the subtropical high pressure area is moving south. The rain will hit each area for one or two days," it said.

The administration also issued a blue alert on Sunday for Typhoon Bavi, which is expected to bring wind gusts and storms to southern and southeastern China.

Bavi, the eighth typhoon of the year, moved into the southern East China Sea on Saturday evening and was in waters 390 kilometers west of Okinawa prefecture in Japan at 5 am on Sunday, with a maximum wind speed of 100 km per hour at its center.

It is forecast to travel northeast at a speed of 10 km/h to 15 km/h before moving into the southern Yellow Sea on Wednesday and heading toward the Korean Peninsula and China's Liaodong Peninsula on Thursday, the administration said.

Though the typhoon will not make landfall in China soon, gales are expected to batter coastal areas including Taiwan and Fujian province from Sunday to Monday.