Thunderstorm With a Silver Lining: Beijing Downpour Disrupts Flights, Brings Much Needed Cool-Down
Beijing is no stranger to extreme weather and this summer, the rain is making a heady comeback. On Sunday evening, Beijing's city-dwellers were forced indoors for several hours as thunderstorms raged overhead and rainwater flooded the streets below. As well as yellow alert for the rain, the government issued a blue warning, cautioning residents in the capital's outlying mountainous areas of potential landslides, according to Beijing News.
The thunderstorm that erupted last night reportedly produced average precipitation of 25.5-35.2 millimeters between 5-6pm across Beijing's city center alone. However, it was Lijiazhuang Village in Mentougou District that received the brunt of the downpour, recording a whopping 115.6 millimeters of rain in a single hour. The constant lightning led some Weibo users to joke that Beijing looked more like a nightclub than a regular city, which to be fair, it did.
The bad weather also affected the city's transportation systems, diverting several bus routes and causing Beijing Capital International Airport to cancel a total of 131 flights on Sunday and 127 flights today. Thankfully, normal road conditions are meant to resume today as the rain wanes on Monday evening, giving way to clearer, calmer weather through the rest of the week.
This time last year saw similar heavy storms, with mudslides, flooding, and even individuals stranded and clinging to trees on account of torrents of water. The biggest floods in recent years came in July 2012, in which a rainstorm killed 77 residents, some of whom died inside their cars at flooded underpasses. Following the floods, Beijing fired its mayor and reformed its warning system.
On the plus side, the rain has provided a much-needed break from weeks of what has been jovially dubbed as "sauna season" (桑拿天 sāngná tiān), briefly bringing the insufferable heat down to a tolerable 29 degrees Celsius. Sadly, the temperatures are likely to soar once again in the coming days and the sauna-like conditions to make a triumphant return, so enjoy the balmy break while it lasts.
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