1,230 times the size of Hong Kong: China deploys drones, AI as Typhoon Dolphin nears coast
Coastal provinces halt shipping and activities and evacuate fishermen as storm targets Zhejiang and Fujian
As of Friday morning, Dolphin was about 820km (510 miles) from China’s east coast, the National Meteorological Centre said. It is forecast to make landfall between Zhejiang and Fujian provinces sometime from Sunday afternoon to Monday morning.
The centre maintained Thursday’s yellow alert, the third-highest level on a four-tier scale, warning of strong winds and rain across Zhejiang and Fujian provinces as well as Taiwan.
The centre’s meteorologist Shen Yuyang said that by Friday morning, the typhoon had grown to nearly 13 times the size of Zhejiang, which is equivalent to 1,230 times the size of Hong Kong. It was not clear where the storm might travel after landing, the centre said, but estimated it could track west or northwest.
With Typhoon Dolphin approaching the 48-hour alert zone, Chinese authorities had deployed new technology to prepare for its arrival, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday. An artificial intelligence forecasting system at the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Centre could allow prediction of the typhoon’s route, strength and landfall factors for the next 240 hours, the report said.
The typhoon’s large wind radius meant inland residents should also pay attention to it, not just those living on the coast, it quoted the marine centre as saying.
The CCTV report warned that heavy rainfall could hit multiple provinces – including Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan and Shandong – and urged residents to stay alert for flash flood warnings.
