Typhoon Dolphin’s remnants bring torrential rain to Beijing

LUOHE, Henan – China’s strongest typhoon in 2026 battered the capital with bouts of intense rain that flooded key roads and stranded vehicles, while lashing wide swathes of the country, after setting new rainfall records in central and eastern provinces.

The world’s second-largest economy is increasingly battling destructive weather that scientists link to climate change, especially in 2026, as an emerging El Nino pattern boosts temperatures and fuels more frequent and intense typhoons.

The capital declared its second-highest rainstorm warning, suspending 250 bus routes and shutting 150 tourist attractions, while 10 subway lines ran at reduced speeds, the official Xinhua news agency said on Aug 12.

The downpours turned a multi-lane roadway in Beijing into a virtual river, bringing traffic to a standstill with cars and buses partially submerged, video images showed on China’s Rednote.

Its northern district of Changping received the highest hourly rainfall on Aug 12, the authorities said, being doused with 90.7mm within an hour after 9am.

The typhoon has weakened this week after travelling more than 6,000km to hit land on Sunday in the eastern province of Zhejiang, but its remnants are drawing tropical moisture deep inland, raising the risk of flooding.

“The most troublesome part is that it affects work and life,” said Zhao Junxia in Luohe, a city in the central province of Henan. “It’s very inconvenient for food and transport.”

Scores of cars crowded a bridge that stayed above the encroaching floods in the province’s coastal city of Yuhuan after almost 200mm of rain that submerged nearby streets, social media footage verified by Reuters showed.

State media said rainfall records were shattered in parts of Zhejiang and the central provinces of Henan and Hubei this week.

Records for a single day of rain in August were smashed in the city of Wugang, home to one of China’s largest steel companies, which received 209.5mm of rain, while Xiangyang received 169.1mm.

More rain ahead

People in northern and central regions geared up for more days of rain from the remnants of the storm’s vast rain bands.

In Luohe, Zhao, who hosts short videos on Douyin, China’s equivalent of TikTok, said she moved her car to higher ground before the rain arrived, to avoid a repeat of her experience some years ago.

“We parked the car 2km away ahead of time because the waterlogging near our apartment can be particularly serious,” the 32-year-old added.

Chinese meteorologists are reaching for a new generation of artificial intelligence weather models to bolster traditional forecasting systems to improve the country’s resilience to extreme weather.

Each year, extreme rainfall causes billions of dollars in economic losses as manufacturing is disrupted and crops are washed away. REUTERS