Guangdong Records 435mm Rainfall; Authorities Upgrade Flood Response Level

The rainy front continues to linger over southern China, with Lufeng City in Guangdong Province recording a staggering 435.4 millimeters of rainfall within just 9 hours today. The Guangdong provincial government announced tonight that numerous cities in eastern Guangdong have experienced flooding, and with heavy rains expected to persist across the province in the coming days, disaster risks are rising. As a result, the flood emergency response has been elevated from Level 4 to Level 3.

According to CCTV News, in addition to Guangdong, the National Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters maintains Level 4 emergency responses for Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guangxi, while terminating the Level 4 response for Guizhou. Two working groups dispatched by the headquarters continue to assist with flood prevention efforts on the ground in Guangdong and Fujian.

Observations from the Guangdong Provincial Meteorological Observatory show that today, from morning to afternoon, heavy to extremely heavy rainfall hit Dongguan, Huizhou, southern Heyuan, southern Meizhou, and most counties and cities along the eastern Guangdong coast, with some areas experiencing record-breaking downpours. Between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., the meteorological station at the No. 5 Primary School in Lufeng’s Overseas Chinese Management Zone recorded 435.4mm of rain—the highest in the province.

During the same period, 20 towns and subdistricts across Guangdong recorded torrential rainfall, 62 experienced extremely heavy rain, and 189 saw heavy rain. Many cities in eastern Guangdong are currently flooded, coinciding with the peak of the so-called 'Dragon Boat Flood' season, the period of heaviest rainfall in the province.

The Guangdong Meteorological Observatory forecasts that over the next three days, most parts of the province will experience heavy to torrential rain, with localized areas facing extremely heavy downpours. Parts of the southern coastal region may even see record-breaking rainfall, accompanied by thunderstorm gales reaching up to Force 10, with gusts of up to 8 on the Beaufort scale.

Beyond Guangdong, the National Flood Control Headquarters assesses that heavy rains will persist from southern Jiangnan to the South China region over the next two days, with particularly intense nighttime rainfall. Combined with high cumulative rainfall and extreme localized precipitation, the risk of disasters remains high, making the flood prevention situation severe and complex. (Edited by Qiu Guoqiang / Zhang Zhixuan)