Typhoon Dolphin made landfall in densely populated eastern China on Sunday after triggering more than 1,000 flight cancellations, widespread evacuations and a top level alert from authorities.
China’s National Meteorological Centre confirmed that the centre of the storm crossed the coastline near Yuhuan City in Zhejiang Province around 5:30 pm local time. Maximum wind speeds near the centre exceeded 150 kilometres per hour at the moment of landfall. The powerful system had already forced major disruptions across the region as residents and officials prepared for its arrival in the preceding days.
Nearly 1,400 flights in and out of Shanghai’s two main passenger airports were cancelled on Sunday. Hangzhou’s airport in Zhejiang recorded another 270 inbound and outbound cancellations. Transport and work services were suspended in several areas along the predicted path. Services on more than 200 ferry routes in Zhejiang and Fujian were halted, and some train services were also suspended for safety. Nearly 99,000 people in Fujian were relocated from high risk zones on Saturday evening. Offshore projects stopped operations and hundreds of construction vessels returned to port.
The effects reached far beyond the immediate landfall zone. In Hong Kong the weather observatory recorded a temperature of 36.9 degrees Celsius, pushed higher by warm air associated with the storm. The Hong Kong Observatory warned that extremely hot conditions would continue through Tuesday as the system moved inland. Earlier the same system brought heavy rain and strong winds to Japan’s Okinawa, where seven people suffered minor injuries and more than 5,000 households lost power. In Taiwan dozens of ferry services and over 180 flights were cancelled amid downpours and strong winds in the north.
China’s meteorological authorities issued a red typhoon alert, their highest warning level, forecasting extraordinary torrential rain in parts of central and eastern Zhejiang. Heavy rain was also expected in Shanghai and sections of Fujian, Anhui and Jiangsu through Monday afternoon. Officials said Typhoon Dolphin would weaken after landfall while tracking northwest across eastern China.
The arrival of this storm follows Typhoon Noul, which struck southern Guangdong only two weeks earlier and was described at the time as the strongest system to hit China this year. Scientists note that human driven climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events worldwide.
