Northern parts of China are bracing for more flash floods and landslides as annual “plum rains” make their way up from central and southern regions, multiple media outlets report. The term plum rain refers to the East Asian rainy season, which coincides with the ripening of plums in late spring and early summer.
Red alerts were issued on Thursday across several northern provinces, with heavy rains expected to hit both Gansu in the northwest and Liaoning in the northeast.
This comes after severe downpours in Henan Province, where at least five people died when a river overflowed its banks. Some trains were suspended in Beijing on Thursday due to adverse weather.
[See more: Flooding eases in hard hit Guizhou as government pledges more disaster funds]
Vice Premier Zhang Guoqin was in Hebei Province earlier this week, urging local officials to preemptively evacuate people ahead of forecast heavy rain in order to minimise casualties.
Meanwhile, scorching temperatures have been forecast for a number of provinces. Northwestern Zhejiang, on the eastern seaboard, and the city of Turpan in Xinjiang are expected to experience temperatures in excess of 40°C.
The past few weeks have seen different parts of China experience a range of extreme weather events, from widespread heatwaves to extreme rainfall and deadly flooding in the wake of Typhoon Wutip.
