Extreme Weather Hits China: Heatwave and Floods Test Northern Cities

China is grappling with simultaneous extreme weather events this week, as a heatwave expands across central and eastern regions while the Sichuan Basin faces torrential rainfall and northern cities recover from flooding triggered by Typhoon “White Dolphin.” The convergence of these events underscores how climate change is fundamentally reshaping the country’s weather patterns.

Heatwave and Heavy Rain in the South

Hot and humid conditions are developing and spreading across central and eastern China as the subtropical high strengthens and extends westward, according to Xinhua News. Maximum temperatures are expected to reach around 33 degrees Celsius generally, with more areas experiencing 35 degrees or above. Minimum temperatures hovering near 25 degrees are creating muggy conditions across the region.

Meanwhile, the Sichuan Basin is experiencing frequent heavy rainfall on August 17-18, with local areas seeing heavy rain or torrential rain. Some areas are recording rainfall amounts with extreme characteristics, prompting warnings about potential secondary disasters including flash floods, landslides, and mudslides.

Due to the rainfall, eastern Sichuan’s high temperatures are expected to ease, with Chengdu’s maximum temperature dropping to around 25 degrees. However, Chongqing will continue to experience high temperatures for at least the next three days.

Typhoon Aftermath Devastates Henan

The current heatwave and rainfall come on the heels of significant flooding in central China. Typhoon “White Dolphin” made landfall in early August and was officially discontinued on August 11, but its remnant circulation continued to cause significant rainfall across multiple provinces.

From August 11-12, Henan province experienced widespread heavy rain, with the Huang-Huai region suffering torrential rain and local extreme rainfall. Maximum point rainfall reached 469mm at Pinggou station in Lushan County, Pingdingshan City, as CNR reported. The Henan Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters activated a Level II emergency response on August 12, with multiple cities including Xuchang, Pingdingshan, and Zhengzhou following suit.

As of August 12 at 9:00, a total of 27,191 households (65,593 people) had been evacuated across Henan, with 332 resettlement sites activated. More than 58,000 people participated in emergency duty and inspection patrol work.

The Jialu River Breach and Its Closure

The most dramatic moment came on the night of August 13, when the east bank levee of the Jialu River at the New North Ring Bridge in Chuanhui District, Zhoukou City, experienced a breach. The breach was caused by the combined effects of upstream inflow and backwater from the Shaying River, initially about 30 meters wide before expanding to approximately 117 meters at its widest point.

The breach flooded the Zhoukou Fifth People’s Hospital campus and a driving school, with deepest floodwater reaching 1.5 meters. Emergency response was immediate, with China News Service reporting that the Ministry of Emergency Management dispatched 200 rescue personnel and 110 pieces of large engineering equipment from China Anneng Group.

Rescue teams employed innovative techniques to close the gap. Wang Pingwu, Deputy Director of the Emergency Rescue Department at China Anneng Group, explained that teams “combined the actual terrain conditions and creatively adopted the operation method of ‘building dike heads, constructing super-wide spur dikes, advancing from both ends, combining flat and vertical blocking, and anti-seepage closure.’”

After a massive rescue operation involving 270 rescue personnel, 138 pieces of equipment, military police, firefighters, police, and militia forces, the breach was successfully closed at 20:29 on August 15, as China Economic Net confirmed. Zhoukou Mayor Zhan Peng noted that “after the breach closure, levee inspection, flood drainage and disaster relief, and resettlement work are being properly carried out.”

Northern Cities Under Pressure

The extreme rainfall events are exposing vulnerabilities in northern Chinese cities’ flood control and drainage systems, according to Xinhua’s analysis. Many northern cities were built under the assumption of relatively dry conditions, leading to underinvestment in flood control infrastructure. The traditional belief that “northern regions don’t have major floods” has left some urban areas with outdated underground drainage networks and insufficient capacity for extreme rainfall events.

Different city types face different risks. Mountain-front plain cities like Beijing and Zhengzhou see mountain floods rapidly converge on low-lying urban areas, while valley cities like Lanzhou face drainage systems overwhelmed by backwater effects when main rivers swell.

A Shifting Climate Paradigm

The current situation must be understood in the context of significant climate change affecting China’s precipitation patterns. According to analysis by Fu Shenming, a researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published in Beijing Daily, China’s precipitation pattern has entered a new phase.

The rain belt is shifting northward and westward, with both southern and northern regions experiencing increased rainfall simultaneously - a shift from the historical “south floods, north drought” pattern to “both north and south flooding.” Global warming is increasing atmospheric water vapor content by approximately 7% per 1 degree C temperature rise, while an El Nino event in the central-eastern equatorial Pacific has developed faster than expected, with key area sea surface temperature index reaching 1.6 degrees C since June.

Climate models project that from 2026-2055, annual extreme rainstorm accumulation in northern China will show a fluctuating upward trend, with the rainstorm belt center expected to migrate northwestward at approximately 0.85 degrees of latitude per decade.

Looking Ahead

Experts are calling for a paradigm shift from “historical experience-based flood control” to “extreme scenario-based flood control,” focusing not just on major rivers but also on small and medium rivers, small reservoirs, mountain flood channels, urban drainage systems, and grassroots evacuation procedures.

The Ministry of Water Resources has outlined seven key priorities for flood defense, including strengthening monitoring and early warning, focusing on mountain flood disaster prevention, and ensuring the safety of the South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route Project, as reported by China Economic Net.

As extreme weather becomes the new normal, the question is no longer whether northern cities will face major floods, but whether they will be prepared when they do. The events of August 2026 - from the heatwave in the east to the breached levees in Henan - serve as a stark reminder that climate adaptation is no longer a future concern but a present imperative.