China braced for heavy summer floods as global warming blamed for extreme weather
- More than 70 rivers have already exceeded warning levels and rain in some parts of the country hit record highs in recent weeks
- Government warns of major floods through to August with water levels on the Yangtze and its tributaries set to rise further
China is bracing for a heavy flood season with 71 rivers already exceeding warning levels, the state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday, as meteorological authorities warned that global warming is fuelling more extreme weather.
Water levels on the Yangtze and its tributaries were expected to rise further over the next week, the ministry said, and it warned of major floods throughout the country from June to August.
Some monitoring stations are issuing alerts, with the Wuhan city section of the Yangtze River in central China more than two metres (6.5ft) higher than the normal at this time of the year as a result of heavy rain upstream.
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For the whole of last year, nationwide precipitation levels stood at nearly 700mm, 10.3 per cent higher than average and up 7.6 per cent from a year earlier, with rainfall doubling in some parts of central and northeast China.
Jia Xiaolong, deputy director of the National Meteorological Centre, told reporters at the end of April that global warming had made China increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather, including heatwaves as well as floods.
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