Jun 19 2022 09:43
Severe storms swept large areas of southern China, causing urban floods and rural mudslides, as the first wave of summer rains reached their peak.
Streets turned into rivers and cars and single-storey houses washed away in at least two counties in southwest China’s Guizhou province on Saturday, videos circulated on Chinese social media showed. The rainfall in some areas was the heaviest in 60 years.
On Saturday, state media reported that five villagers died in the neighboring Guangxi Autonomous Region when a wooden house collapsed after being wrecked by torrential rain.
There were reports of mudslides and landslides on the roads.
The Meteorological Authority said on Sunday that rain is expected to continue until early next week.
In southern China, the weeks leading up to the Dragon Boat Festival in early June and the weeks following are often unstable and rainy as the warm, humid air of the south collides with the cold air masses from the north.
Early summer storms have been more intense and longer-lasting than usual this year, with rainfall in Guangxi, Guangdong and Fujian reaching the highest levels since 1961, according to local meteorological bureaus.
Historically, China has been prone to summer floods, but recently it has become more vulnerable due to deforestation, wetland reclamation and water storage for power generation and irrigation. Climate change is also one of those reasons.
Source: agencies
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