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Edith Mao

The rainy season in northern China traditionally arrives in July and August and this year it hit hard – again.
In late July, the capital Beijing and neighbouring Hebei province were battered by heavy rain that left dozens of people dead.
In one case, 31 people died in a nursing home in the northern Beijing district of Miyun in an area that had been considered safe from flooding.
This year’s disaster is the fifth of its kind in the country’s north since 2012.


Is the flooding in Beijing unusual this year?
Yes. The storms that hit in late July mainly affected the northern part of the capital while severe floods in the city in 2016 and 2023 were concentrated in the south.
The last catastrophic flood in the northern basin was in 1939, Cheng Xiaotao, former top engineer at the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, told China Newsweek.
Chen Tao, chief forecaster at the National Meteorological Centre, told the Beijing-based magazine on July 30 that the torrential downpours were caused by “anomalous atmospheric circulation patterns”, which pushed warm moist air more northward than usual.
When that air reached the northern mountainous outskirts of the capital, it generated the intense rain.
This led to floods in Beijing’s northern mountainous areas, forcing more than 100,000 residents to be evacuated to safer areas.


Does it rain a lot in Beijing?
According to government data, Beijing’s average annual rainfall from 2015 to 2024 was 649.6mm (25.6 inches), about 100mm higher than the previous decade.
In late July floods, Beijing recorded 210.4mm, or about a third of its usual annual total, in the six days from 8am on July 23 to 11am on July 29.
Beijing lies in a semi-humid zone, which is defined as an area with annual precipitation of between 400mm and 800mm.
Most of that falls in the summer as the warm, moist air of the southeast monsoon brings intense rain.
From October to May, the city is almost entirely under the influence of dry, cold air masses from Siberia, resulting in dry autumns and winters with minimal rain.


What causes flash flooding in urban areas?
Urban floods occur when drainage systems cannot cope with sudden, heavy influxes.
Other factors can include low-lying terrain, large areas with impermeable surfaces, and poor drainage infrastructure.
Flash floods often happen in steep terrain and can cause landslides. In these cases, intense rainfall continuously erodes mountain surfaces, soil collapses and cascades downward.
China Newsweek reported that in some of the affected areas in northern Beijing, accommodation had been built for tourists in flood channels, substantially increasing overflow risks.
One of the most extreme cases of urban flooding was in Zhengzhou in central China in 2021. On July 20 that year, the city had 624.1mm of rain – roughly its annual average, overwhelming the substandard drainage systems in the city’s centre and flooding parts of the subway system.
In some areas, the water was 2.6 metres deep. At least 380 people died, including 14 who were trapped in the subway.

What can governments do to prevent these floods?
The Chinese government aims to largely eradicate urban flooding from rainfall by 2035.
To get there, it has designated dozens of pilot “sponge cities” across the country nationwide, though Beijing is not one of them.
The “sponge cities” concept was first proposed in 2012 and describes urban areas that function like a sponge, retaining, absorbing and purifying water during downfalls, while allowing stored water to be “squeezed out” for use during dry periods.
This model is designed for both flood prevention and environmental protection.
It maximises natural water storage by using nearby rivers, wetlands and canals and improves urban drainage infrastructure through pumping station upgrades and better drainage networks.
According to the Beijing municipal government, by late 2023, more than a third of the city’s developed land met sponge city standards.
Clearly, to build an advanced flood-resilient city, Beijing still has a long way to go.


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Beijing has been hit by deadly floods again. Is it unusual?

Debris piles up in a flooded street in Taishitun, in Beijing’s Miyun district, late last month.  Photo: EPA

Village houses and other buildings are partially submerged after heavy rainfall flooded the area in Beijing’s Miyun district in late July. Photo: Reuters

31 die in Chinese nursing home as Beijing flood death toll rises to 44

On Wednesday in Huairou district, on the outskirts of Beijing, the devastation wrought by heavy rain is evident. The toll has been rising over the week as floods and a landslide have claimed  44 lives, with more missing. Photo: AFP

Members of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force building a dyke in Miyun district, Beijing on Monday. Photo: Xinhua

China’s water paradox: rainfall drenches big cities while river run-off drops

Residents navigate a flooded neighbourhood in northern Beijing in late July. Photo: AFP

China releases US$77 million relief fund as casualties mount in Beijing floods

Swathes of northern China including Beijing have been lashed by torrential downpours. Photo: AFP

An aerial view of Xinanjuang village in Miyun district, on the outskirts of Beijing on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

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Most of the Chinese capital’s annual rainfall is in the summer but some areas were not prepared for this year’s deluge


Most of the Chinese capital’s annual rainfall is in the summer but some areas were not prepared for this year’s deluge.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Most of the Chinese capital’s annual rainfall is in the summer but some areas were not prepared for this year’s deluge

Is the flooding in Beijing unusual this year?

Most of the Chinese capital’s annual rainfall is in the summer but some areas were not prepared for this year’s deluge