Typhoon Dolphin may have weakened after landfall, but its trailing storm bands are still hammering eastern China, flooding streets in Shanghai and drenching a string of coastal and inland provinces.
Dolphin made landfall in Zhejiang — the province to the south and west of Shanghai — yesterday evening with maximum sustained winds of 151km/ph near its centre, before weakening into a tropical storm.
Even after losing strength, the system’s remaining rain clouds continued to soak parts of Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong today.
In Shanghai, residents shared live-streams on social media showing waterlogged streets this morning in the suburban districts of Jiading and Qingpu, on the outskirts of the city centre.
Dolphin is the strongest typhoon to hit China this year
The videos, which Reuters could not verify, appeared to show people wading through knee-high, murky floodwater.
Disruption also spread to air travel: Shanghai’s two airports cancelled 943 flights because of the typhoon, cutting capacity by nearly 40% today, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Elsewhere in Zhejiang, powerful winds and heavy rain flipped a truck in Wenzhou, according to a video posted on TikTok yesterday. The driver’s condition was not clear.
Forecasts show Dolphin — the strongest typhoon to hit China this year — pushing further inland toward the central provinces of Hubei and Henan in the coming days, while continuing to drive moisture northward.
The typhoon had already travelled 6,000km before it made landfall
Farther north, authorities in the capital Beijing raised warnings for torrential rain and said the city was ready to activate its flood control response tomorrow morning.
CCTV reported that Dolphin had already travelled 6,000km before reaching land, giving it a life-cycle three times longer than an ordinary typhoon. The broadcaster said the storm also carried an ultra-large cloud system that spread across eastern China.
Dolphin packed maximum sustained winds of 151km/h near its centre when it made landfall in Zhejiang
Officials and forecasters have drawn comparisons between Dolphin and Doksuri in 2022, a typhoon that crossed China after causing destruction in southeastern Fujian province and later triggered record-breaking rainfall in Beijing.
As Dolphin’s storm clouds collide with colder northern air, Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei should brace for rain through Thursday, CCTV said.
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