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Echo Xie

In the wake of Beijing’s heaviest rainfall in 140 years, experts have warned that China needs to strengthen its weather and hydrological monitoring system, with the number of extreme weather events expected to increase due to climate change.
The downpours in the Chinese capital, which caused deadly flooding, broke a swathe of meteorological records. According to the Beijing Meteorological Service, one station in the northwest district of Changping recorded 744.8mm (29.32 inches) of rainfall between Saturday and Wednesday – the highest since 1891.
Lincheng, in the neighbouring Hebei province, experienced the highest rainfall, though, with 1,003mm falling between Saturday and Monday. That is equivalent to two years of rainfall in the region.
Precipitation across the area was also record-breaking, with daily rainfall recorded by four meteorological stations in Beijing and 10 in Hebei exceeding the historical maximums.
During the heavy rainfall event in Beijing, data from more than 100 automatic meteorological stations in the city were interrupted because of power or station problems, according to the China Meteorological Administration. It added satellite information and radar detection was used to determine precipitation.


Shao Sun, a climatologist at the University of California, Irvine, said it was the most intense rainfall event northern China had experienced since 1964, surpassing the 2012 flooding that killed 79 people and affected more than 1.6 million.
The downpours were directly caused by the combined impact of Typhoon Doksuri, a subtropical high and the Taihang and Yanshan mountain ranges in northern China, Sun said.
Doksuri and the subtropical high formed a north-south water vapour transport channel in eastern China. When it then encountered the obstacles of the Taihang and Yanshan mountains, it resulted in heavy rainfall.
The formation of Typhoon Khanun also transported large amounts of moisture to northern China, leading to the “unprecedented and record-breaking” weather event, Sun added.
Since the start of the 21st century, the number of heavy rainfall events had increased in northern China, Sun said.
“Reviewing historical patterns, during the 1950s to 1970s, the main rain belt was concentrated in northern China, which later shifted to southern China in the 1980s and 1990s. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the main rain belt has gradually moved northward again,” he said.
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“From a historical perspective, northern China is currently experiencing a period of increased heavy rainfall, leading to more frequent extreme weather events and a notable rise in flood occurrences.”
It is therefore critical for meteorological and hydrological departments to improve their forecasts and warning ability, as well as for cities to improve their disaster prevention and mitigation capacity, according to experts.
Zhang Jianyun, former head of the Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, told a webinar on Wednesday that China should strengthen research on the mechanism of extreme rainstorms and improve the accuracy of weather forecasts.
He said the nation’s hydrological monitoring and warning, in particular, needed to be strengthened.
“Many of our hydrological stations are in rural areas and in poor condition. When the flood comes, the station can be washed away, affecting the monitoring equipment and information reporting,” he said.

Zhang was head of the expert group organised by the State Council to investigate the devastating flooding event in the central city of Zhengzhou in 2021, which left 398 people dead or missing.
The group’s report, released in January 2022, called for authorities to enhance the integrated management of early warning and response, and improve the capacity of cities to prevent or mitigate disasters.
The issue is set to grow in importance with research suggesting that high-altitude regions are more likely to be hit by extreme rainfall events as a result of global warming.
“It is predicted that extreme precipitation intensity in high-altitude regions will increase at roughly twice the rate of low-altitude regions,” Sun said. “For every 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature, extreme precipitation intensity in high-altitude regions is projected to increase by about 15 per cent.”


His team found in a 2020 study that Beijing was among the six cities in eastern China with the highest level of waterlogging risk.
“The findings emphasised the formidable challenges encountered by cities in northern China owing to deficient drainage systems, limited river networks and inadequate urban green space planning, making them highly vulnerable to severe flooding during unexpectedly heavy rainfall events,” Sun said.


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Improvements needed in weather monitoring systems to combat increased extreme weather events
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