Weather tracker: Shanghai hit by its ‘strongest typhoon in 75 years’

Typhoon Bebinca struck the east coast of China this week, making landfall near Shanghai, a city of almost 30 million people, on Monday. Bebinca developed into a typhoon to the east of the southern Japan islands late last week, before traveling westwards through the East China Sea and making landfall in Shanghai at approximately 7.30am local time (00.30BST).

The Chinese media say it is the strongest typhoon to hit Shanghai in 75 years. Wind speeds were reported to have reached just over 150km/h (about 94mph), making it equivalent to a category 1 hurricane, albeit just shy of a category 2 in strength. Before Bebinca, Shanghai had been hit directly by only two typhoons, one in 1949 and another in 2022, as they usually track further south.

More than 400,000 people were evacuated as China issued a red typhoon warning, with more than a thousand flights cancelled and many roads shut due to flooding and strong winds. After leaving a path of destruction in Shanghai, Bebinca proceeded westwards across China and weakened, though still caused disruption by bringing heavy rain and flooding.

It does not look like the weather is going to improve for Shanghai any time soon as Tropical Storm Pulasan moves in from the east. Pulasan developed into a severe tropical storm in the Philippine Sea earlier this week, but weakened into a tropical storm as it entered the East China Sea, probably in part due to the relatively cooler water that was left behind after Bebinca. Despite Pulasan weakening to a tropical storm already, it is forecast to weaken further to a tropical depression as it makes landfall near Shanghai on Friday. It is still expected to cause major disruption as Shanghai continues its recovery from Bebinca.

Further south, Tropical Depression Soulik is bringing heavy rain to Vietnam, which is set to persist through the weekend, with more than 250mm of rain expected by Monday, according to some meteorological models. Warnings have been issued by the national weather agency for flooding, as well as landslides occurring as the ground becomes saturated with the heavy rain. Winds produced by Soulik will not be as strong as Bebinca, though gusts may still reach 60mph, possibly causing some damage, with flying debris a risk.

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