Beijing, June 19 (BNA): Severe storms battered vast areas of southern China, causing urban floods and rural mudslides as the first wave of summer rain reached its peak.
Reuters reported that streets turned into bloated rivers as cars and one-story homes were washed away in at least two counties in southwest China’s Guizhou Province.
The rainfall in some areas was the heaviest in 60 years.
There were also reports of mudslides and road collapses.
Heavy rain will continue in Guizhou, Jiangxi, Anhui and Zhejiang provinces, as well as in Guangxi, until early next week, according to government weather forecasts, as a rainy window known as “dragon boat water” peaks.
Early summer storms have been more intense and longer-lasting than usual this year with rainfall in Guangxi, Guangdong and Fujian at the highest levels since 1961, according to local meteorological bureaus.
“Cold and warm air has converged over southern China and the two sides have entered a dead end and a tug of war,” said Wang Weiwei, a meteorological analyst with China Weather Network.
The rain in southern China is expected to recede around the summer solstice on Tuesday.
ZHB